Pleneau Island and Gerlache Strait
After spending yesterday in the magical pack ice, we started our day with a landing at Pleneau Island. This is named after one of the members of Charcot’s expedition, the first to overwinter in the Antarctic Peninsula. There is a small gentoo penguin colony and we had the chance to wander around the low-lying island.
Then we went for a Zodiac cruise through “Iceberg Graveyard,” a very shallow bay where massive pieces of ice collect along the shoreline. The softly falling snow added a touch of winter wonderland setting as we slowly cruised around these impressive icebergs.
In the afternoon, the sun shone and stronger winds cleared the clouds away to reveal the stunning scenery of the Gerlache Strait. Our fearless leader, Bud, had decided to spend the afternoon searching for marine mammals. Just after a delicious teatime treat of Swedish pancakes, the eagle eyes on the flying bridge spotted a group of killer whales and a humpback whale just ahead of the ship. Despite the breezy conditions, we had fantastic sightings of the Gerlache Strait killer whales as they repeatedly swan close to National Geographic Explorer. These are the group of killer whales that are known to feed on penguins and most likely fish. Killer whale researchers Bob Pitman and John Durban collected valuable photos that will help contribute to their Killer Whale Identification Catalog. They recognized individual whales from a sighting in the same area on the previous trip and this type of information can aid in estimating population size.
