Saving Antarctica … for All of Us
Story and Photos by MJ Pramik
I awoke one morning in the 2024 new year with the thought: I must return to Antarctica. I must see what is happening down there. I must again cavort with the penguins, the Adélies, the gentoos, the chinstraps. Antarctica ranks as my favorite place on the planet. I needed to ensure these creatures were cared for, ethically and carefully. Since my first Antarctic expedition in 2008 much has changed. I could feel it in my bones.
News from the South Pole and its surrounding land mass had not been good. General press stories and scientific studies report the air temperature has increased 3 degrees centigrade in the Antarctic Peninsula alone. Melting glaciers contributed to rising sea levels, creating wind current instability challenges voyages and general storms, while warming seas change sea ice distribution. All these events, in turn, have altered the location of some Antarctic penguin colonies.
Melting snow and ice surface cover promote colonization by various new and sometimes invasive plants. A long-term drop in Antarctic krill, the crustacean that is the major food supply in surrounding waters, can cause food stress for the whale, seal, ice fish, and penguin populations.
In Antarctica, the summers of 2022 and 2023 exhibited unprecedented loss of sea ice, verified by satellite records spanning 1979 to the present. And between 2002 and 2023, the deadly bird flu had landed on the mainland of Antarctica, detected in the carcasses of two dead seabirds.
I just had to visit Antarctica again.
My voyage on the Viking Polaris Expedition Ship in February and March, the end of the astral summer, set me to researching the changes in Antarctica from my first visit in 2008. The approximately 377 Polaris passengers and I enjoyed a relatively smooth crossing of the 642 nautical miles of Drake Passage from Ushuaia, Argentina. This journey was quite the opposite of my initial crossing in February 2008, when heaving seas confined all Quark expedition passengers to their staterooms during the two-day run.
Our current voyage began with warm air blowing under partly cloudy skies, a warm 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees centigrade), and calm seas. This Viking Polaris expedition would wrap up the 2023 to 2024 Antarctica sailing season for cruise vessels.
As noted, my initial 2008 crossing of Drake Passage connecting the frontier town of Ushuaia, Argentina, with the Antarctic Peninsula began on slamming stormy seas. The heaving waves kept most of the passengers inside their state rooms with bagged meals left outside their doors. My earlier expedition ship, the Quark’s Ocean Nova, was a third the size of the Viking Polaris, hosting only 80 passengers and 80 crew. It easily tossed us about on the energetic frigid waters.
We had the good fortune to cross the “Drake Lake,” joked Polaris’s Captain Olivier Marien. Viking’s Polaris moved through the passage, quietly and calmly. State of the art technology allowed the captain and crew to conduct slick maneuvers like handling wind changes and swimming alongside a pod of orcas that surrounded the ship one evening.
Sixteen years after my initial landing in Antarctica, I viscerally felt something had changed as I gazed at the glaciers. I’d aged sixteen years surely. And so had the planet, complicated by the travails of the climate crisis and the pandemic. Peering off into the horizon, there seemed to be less ice. Fewer floating icebergs. A bit warmer perhaps. I stood on deck wearing my San Francisco weather parka and wool cap. No gloves. Humpback whales welcomed us in the nearby waters.
The crew’s favorite app definitely was windy.com in the Antarctic waters. Wind ranks as a major decision driver in maneuvering the ship across the sometimes stormy and treacherous seas. We would have nightly check in on the app to course our travel for the next day. Other small luxury cruise lines such as Silversea, Atlas, Seabourn, and A&K also have such two-week expedition cruises to the Antarctic Peninsula. The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) member ships consult each other about the next day’s routes and landings so as to not overwhelm any one location.
IAATO + Tourism: A Big Change
The Antarctic Treaty, signed on 1 December 1959 at Washington, D.C., became enforceable on 23 June 1961. This treaty designated the entire continent as “a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science.” It created an unprecedented global partnership that now includes fifty-seven countries. Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom maintain territorial claims in Antarctica, but the United States and most other countries do not recognize those claims. Yet the mood remains overall peaceful in the Antarctic.
Many scientists and adventurers regard Antarctica as the last great wilderness on our planet. The continent remains somewhat pristine with wildlife and most landscapes do not show direct human activity. Today, sailing vessels and visitors agree to operate under personal responsibility to tread lightly causing minimal environmental impact.
On my first Antarctic expedition in 2008, IAATO did not exist. The tour operator group formed in 2011 to work toward environmentally responsible tourism. They aimed to show that sustainable tourism was achievable in remote and fragile wilderness areas such as the ice continent. IAATO joins in these efforts with the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) at the planet’s north pole. Both organizations believe tourism should continue as part of the driving force in Antarctic conservation. The tour organizations voluntarily monitor themselves at present. IAATO includes fifty tour operators with fifty-four vessels, six of which are large cruise ships.
Members of the IAATO/AECO groups believe the first-hand travel experiences to Antarctica nurture a broader understanding of destinations without indigenous populations. Visitors to Antarctica now represent over a hundred different nationalities each season with nearly sixty percent from the United States. Upon returning home, these citizen adventurers are encouraged to become polar ambassadors in their communities.
IAATO focuses on protection and management of the environment and education about Antarctica. The association’s aim is a greater worldwide understanding and awareness of the southern continent with the goal of leaving it still pristine and majestic for future generations. They have strict guidelines about human behavior around wildlife, litter disposal, avoidance of damage to vegetation, and introduction of invasive species.
However, one study of the black carbon footprint of tourism has found that the shore landings of regular sites on the Palmer Archipelago have had an effect on the surface. The black carbon footprint has lessened from a decade ago when ships burned dirtier fuel. Some current companies are researching renewable fuels, batteries, and alternative fuel cells for powering their vessels.
Viking Polar: A Norwegian Adventure
This Viking Polaris Expedition tour was heavy into SCIENCE.
“Viking likes to call itself the thinking person’s adventure,” said Kim, a many time Viking traveler from Indiana. “Viking is always ‘good value’.”
Meghan Goggins headed up the onboard science team on the Polaris. Goggins, a Brit with a master’s degree in marine biology, entertained guests with science. Because I’m a trained biologist, I was thoroughly charmed and excited by the daily presentations on voyage-related research. On several occasions, I went out with Goggins’ research staff to collect samples of sea water for their phytoplankton research.
Phytoplankton convert the sun’s rays into energy, taking in carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. Just what is needed to solve some of the climate crisis.
Goggins main study project investigates the levels and genetics of the phytoplankton — the teeny, microscopic single cell organisms — floating in the Antarctic Sea and other bodies of water. You need a microscope to “see” the phytoplankton. Hence, the presence of many microscopes in the science lab on the Polaris, along with skulls, bones, and photos of Antarctic fauna on laboratory counters in the core of the ship.
“Oceanic phytoplankton absorbs forty percent of the world’s carbon and provides fifty percent of the world’s atmospheric oxygen. Along with the world’s forests, they are the ‘planet’s lungs’ and every second breath we take comes from phytoplankton, “ said Dr. Damon Stanwell-Smith, Head of Science at Viking. “We are proud to offer our scientific partners the ability to better understand these organisms that play a critical role in the Earth’s carbon cycle in these remote regions.”
Viking’s science partners include, among others, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. Viking expedition ships also work with NOAA/US National Weather Service to launch weather balloons from Antarctic locations.
The crew regaled passengers with science lectures, always delivered with a touch of humor. It seemed as if the science staff had taken stand-up comedy classes. All were entertaining while presenting vivid new research results.
Daily Research
Each day included suiting up (waterproof pants and jacket, woolen underlayers, the must wear floatation life jacket, and a very heavy pair of water proof boots). We would then trudge to the staging area for assigned zodiac landings, kayaking launches led by a guide, or surface tour catamaran survey exploring the edges of the peninsula.
Before boarding a zodiac boat for a peninsula landing, we newly-minted sailors sloshed through a decontamination baths so as not to introduce any invasive organisms onto the glacier or land destination. And, on return to the ship, boots were hosed off, front, top, and bottom.
Penguin Colony Visits
Expedition members had several opportunities to hike among gentoo and Adélie penguin colonies. Humans were advised to keep a five-foot distance or more away from any penguin since many of the remaining chicks were well into the molding process. Staff often arranged colored poles to guide the hikers.
Submersibles!
An added bonus for this Viking adventure included two submersibles, at an approximate cost of five million dollars each. Passengers underwent fitness test on boarding to see if they could take the plunge in the high-tech mini submarines. The test: bend down simulating entry into the sub. I passed.
Yellow submarines, the two submersibles on the Polaris, were christened “George” and “Ringo”. The two similar dive vessels on the Viking Octantis were dubbed “Paul” and “John”. I descended under the Antarctic Sea surface in George (my favorite Beatle as a teen).
Four Hundred and Thirty-Five Feet Below
The Beatles’ Octopus’s Garden played in my head as Captain Michael worked the controls, twisted knobs, pulled levers, and communicated with the team member in the floating safety unit nearby. Safety first, always three backups, served as the expedition’s motto.
My heart thumped as the hatched closed. Captain Michael, floppy joker cap on his head, assured French accent, and a confident voice calmed all six of us expedition passengers. We sat three abreast on each side of the pilot and descended to the seabed slowly, evenly. I huddled in the left corner by the curved window. Enough light flowed from the submersible’s nimble body onto the sea floor. Small rocks, pebbles, and smooth sand rose up toward the window as we descended to a depth of 435 feet (approximately 133 meters). Fifty meters is the maximum for most SCUBA dives.
Gray haze tinged in fluorescent blue eventually cleared enough so I could discern a sea cucumber anchored to the seabed. Other creatures appeared, a tunicate shell, dark stones lining the wall.
Then: monstrous creatures with twenty-plus arms appeared everywhere. Two sinister dark eyes seemed bolted onto a wide central disc slightly raised. One of these creature enveloped a spiral shell with its many arms.
The thirty allotted minutes for the submersible dive flashed by. Soon we surged to the surface. I could have remained on the sea bottom for hours. The sea floor and its incredible creatures channeled me into flow time.
After surfacing and researching the photographs, this twenty-arm creature identified as Labidiaster annulatus, the Antarctic sun starfish, or wolftrap starfish. It is an opportunistic predator and scavenger. It uses its rays like fishing rods to search for food, curling each arm around struggling prey and could measure up to two feet wide. Perhaps it was good we surfaced when we did.
Piloted submersibles from Antarctic expedition ships now regularly aid biological research in the understudied polar regions. Recently, the giant phantom jelly, Styglomedusa gigantea, was discovered in these waters. A fellow passenger snapped this photograph on her submersible dive. An eerie form floated past her window and camera, she said. She could feel it hovering.
Citizen science projects like these on the Viking Polaris engage passengers, scientists, crew, and greater communities throughout the world. Personal submersible use has increased by The Polar Collective. Passengers enthusiastically participate in the details of science research on board. At the moment, the IAATO self-regulation works because the Antarctica tour companies have a vested interest in keeping this showcase place pristine and wild.
I returned from Antarctica reassured that many humans and tour operators are dedicating their time and energy to collect information and to protect the continent, glaciers, and the special wildlife and habitats. For my part, I’ll continue to monitor the penguin news. Research shows the various colonies do tend to move around as do humans and other nonhuman animals. Climate change will drive some of these migrations.
