POLE POSITION
Data collected from our excursion will be sent to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography as part of a longterm study; in the short-term, it’s a sobering indication of havoc wreaked by climate change.
Back on board, I study patterns in the clouds on behalf of NASA and upload photographs of humpback flukes to cetacean ID network Happywhale.com, who use the information to plot migration paths. Not all our findings paint a picture of doom and gloom, though.
“We’ve seen more whales than ever in this season,” says marine biologist and guide Jeff Reynolds, who cites the delayed effects of whaling bans as one explanation for the surge. Whatever the reason, during my short two-week stint in Antarctica, it’s a claim that – at least anecdotally – I can confirm.
In the glassy waters of Charlotte Bay, where an arc of white mountains creates blinding reflections, humpbacks roll beneath the surface, and in Paradise Bay, I watch their barnacled flukes refract golden light.
They aren’t the only animals on the move. Cartoonish Adelies, one of the only two truly Antarctic penguin species, are shifting southward as temperatures rise.
On Torgersen Island, solar panels power a camera to collect census data, following a study which suggested some birds are overwintering here. With only flocks of angelic snow petrels remaining
was a guest of Polar Latitudes, which offers a 15-day Crossing The Circle voyage from £8,871, including polar jacket, daily guided excursions, two pre-voyage nights in Ushuaia and the citizen science programme. Departure is on January 31, 2021. Book through Swoop Antarctica which can also arrange flights.
See swoop-antarctica.com or call 0117 369 0696.
faithful to the pack ice, wildlife sightings thin out as we approach the Antarctic Circle. An amorphous boundary slowly shifting according to the earth’s axis, it’s really nothing greater than a line on a map. But for so many, it represents much more.
“This was a milestone in a sailor’s career,” explains the ship’s historian Seb Coulthard, who masterminds a celebratory, slapstick pantomime involving men wearing bras, women dressed as sea monsters and both sexes cajoled into kissing a wet fish. It’s all inspired by historical truths, of course.
More frivolity is on the cards at Ukrainian research base Vernadsky, where anyone willing to leave their bra behind the bar is served a free drink. In winter, I remind myself, Antarctic nights are very long.
But the significance of our visit is far more serious. It was here, in 1985, that British scientists first detected a hole in the ozone layer, laying foundations for the Montreal Protocol, a global agreement to phase out substances responsible for its depletion. “If only that document could be replicated for climate change,” sighs Seb.
It’s a long shot, but not wholly implausible. After all, so many answers are still locked in the ice. Even my own token contributions will support scientific investigations in a land with no sovereign, government or indigenous human population to speak of.
“This place does not have a voice,” reiterates Seb in his onboard lectures.
That responsibility falls to us.