Day 13 – Glistening white, royal blue and wildlife bonanza
Wednesday, 14 January 2026 – written by Erin
A lot of action had already happened before we started surveys – campers had to be collected early in the morning from their icy overnight stay and the Amundsen rendezvoused with the sister ship MS Fridtjof Nansen to exchange some gear. We started out on surveys shortly after 8:00 am as we were leaving Paradise Bay. Just when we thought we had seen it all on this trip, we got spoiled with more wonderful sights. We were treated to a leopard seal sighting on an ice floe right in front of the ship, and another leopard seal sighting soon after, this one swimming.
Whales and penguins were popping up all around us appearing to be feeding or resting near icebergs.
Another ship was still at our afternoon landing spot so we continued cruising at slow speed in the Gerlache Strait. We were off survey effort when there was a call that the bridge had spotted a pod of orcas. We raced back up to the observation deck to catch a glimpse of them. The exhilaration we felt was exactly the same as the first orca sighting 10 or so days ago. It’s a feeling that is simply impossible to get used to.
After our exciting morning, we prepared for our final penguin behavioral surveys of the trip on Cuverville Island. I have had the honor of visiting the Antarctic Peninsula in 2024 and landed on Cuverville then, and I was shocked to see the difference in snow cover within just two years. The island’s tall hills that were once covered in white now stood as bare rock.
During our penguin surveys, we observed many interesting behaviors such as pebble stealing, greeting, and even some changing of the guard. While exploring the island after our surveys were finished, we witnessed our first active predation event by a Brown Skua, who had taken a penguin chick and decided to make a snack out of it. While gruesome, it was a fascinating reminder of the reality of predator/prey dynamics within the Antarctic ecosystem.
Late afternoon brought about our second round of participation in the science boat. Students got to take part in collecting zooplankton and observing them under the microscope. Whilst some were aboard the science boat, others spent some time inputting data before heading out on deck for more marine mammal and seabird surveys as the ship sailed across the Gerlache Strait to Fournier Bay.
Whale blows and flukes left right and centre once again kept the observers and data recorders very busy. The intensity of whale sightings increased to a frenzy as we entered Fournier Bay, a large bay of Anvers Island.
The ship stopped in some loose ice. To finish out our day, we were treated to an evening Zodiac cruise just after 8:00 pm, which was prime time for the humpback whales of the area to be feeding. It was incredible to watch the horizon and see up to seven humpbacks all fluking at the same time.
Finally, a lucky trick of the light reflecting up from the snow against low clouds gave us a sight that you can only see in Antarctica, a royal blue sunset.
