Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

and then headed towards Albemarle Rocks. In addition to the usual birds
there was an owl, a Johnny rook, some caranchos (crested caracaras) and a
peregrine falcon. In the evening we went for a last walk along the shore to
observe the seals. It was a very still evening, with colourful reflections in the
mirror-like water inside the kelp belt, the green and yellow of the tussock and
the brown and red rock, contrasting with the blue of the sky.
We packed everything up and cleared the hut, expecting to be picked up at
3 o’clock the following morning. However the Protector did not come and we
had some very tough mutton-chops for breakfast. We filled in time, but then
decided to row across to Albemarle. Leaving mid-morning and taking turns at
rowing we made quite good progress. It was quite rough enough crossing the
tide rip off Sandbar Island where the sea lions were roaring, but the clouds
cleared and the wind dropped a bit. The next tide rip, near Jack's Island, was
not so difficult to negotiate and from there it was just a long hard row, with the
wind behind us. It took about an hour and a half. Johnny and I killed seven
geese and a gosling to take back to Stanley and the Protector left for Stanley the
following morning.
I had had a most enjoyable and interesting trip, although the original
objectives of the voyage had not been seriously addressed because Tilbury had
been preoccupied with taking on miscellaneous contracts, in order to raise
money. This was perhaps not surprising. The sealing venture was not founded
in reality. Our voyage had shown me that neither the sea lions nor the fur seals
were as abundant as people had thought. With considerable extrapolation, I
estimated a total fur seal population of 14,000, and I did not recommend to the
Governor that he should issue a license to the company. (It was to be some
thirty years before another fur seal census was undertaken by Ian Strange, the
then Government Naturalist, using aircraft. He came up with a total of 14,000
fur seal population, exactly the number I had estimated in 1951, but a mere
3,000 sea lions, less than one per cent of Hamilton's estimate made in the l930s).
The John Biscoe was due to leave Stanley on 9 March, heading for South
Georgia.
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