Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

elephant seals after so long, particularly on the sea ice, which raised pleasant
memories of Signy Island in l948 and l949.
The Argentine summer base - Jubany - looked quite trim and colourful, three
moderate-sized huts and three small huts overlooked by the massive black volcanic
plug of the Three Brothers. The whole scene was under snow, looking quite different
from the last time I was there.
On Saturday, 5 November we moved off at 4 o’clock, under a dull grey sky and in
"plaster of Paris" pack ice without contrast. We cruised around looking for seals,
tagging and measuring some, but it was not until 11 o’clock that we spotted a family
group with a young pup and landed to immobilize the adults. We tagged and
measured the female and pup and hoisted them aboard the ‘Hero’ in nets, but the
floes were very rotten; all of us were floundering knee-deep in wet snow and Don
went through to his chest - with no bottom to the hole. There was no question of
bagging and tagging the male, who was still quite active, let alone netting him. So
we returned to Ezcurra Inlet to land the cow and pup as before and sledge them to
the shore-line. Their weights were 525 lbs and 150 lbs and the pup was 58 inches
long, the smallest we had handled. We found that the other two pups had been
weaned and there were four male/female pairs and the new female and pup near the
camp now. The ice had cut back a fair way towards Dufayel Island and back from
the edge it was covered in 3-4 inches of water. Ian, Doug and John were in good
spirits despite the wetness and Ian's hydrophone having broken down, but he was
able to borrow another from Dick. They had managed to tag eight seals yesterday
before giving up in the impossible conditions prevailing. We left again at 4 o’clock to
search for mated pairs for collection. It was very calm and still, with mirror
reflections in the pack and parts of King George Island picked out in sunlight. But
we saw no seals, apart from a few single animals and some leopard seals.
Then, at about 6.30 pm I saw a fin in the water to Port and it turned out to be a
single minke whale. We slowed the ship almost to a stop and it cruised alongside
and underneath the vessel. We could see it very clearly in the crystal-clear water,
with a greenish shade, outlined against the dark leaden colour of the deeper water. It
was very, very graceful and one particular lives most vividly in my memory. It came
in on the starboard bow, perfectly framed by the floes on the surface, and curved
around on its side in a beautiful, effortless, gliding motion under the ship - almost as
if reduced to slow motion. Its whole length was clearly visible to me, even to the
small scars on its skin, two oval scars on top of its head and the characteristic white
patch on its fore flipper. For some time, perhaps 15-20 minutes it kept this up,
circling around and under the ship, and then left us. At the same time groups of
Adélie penguins were porpoising in the leads, etched strongly against the evening
light with the ripples caused by their leaps finely distinct. Again the scene was
framed by the pure white of the floes, with an occasional snow petrel or dominican
gull flying low overhead. About half an hour later a leopard seal began following
the ship, swimming near the stern and gracefully sinuous in the clear water.
However, we were still looking for suitable crabeater seals for our experiment
and about 7.30 pm saw a mated pair of crabeaters on a floe. There was a leopard in
the vicinity - perhaps the same one that had been following - as we launched the
inflatable and paddled across the lead to the floe. Don drugged the female, but both
seals went into the water and popped out on another floe - and yet another - before
150