VT College of Science Quarterly August 2014 Vol. 2 No. 1 | Page 5

Video
Top -- Heavy seas on the ship
from Argentina to Antarctica;
and a penguin with a new
chick. Photo at left: A penguin
keeps a new-born chick close.

Dec. 20, 2013:

Photo by Michele Anderson

There we were, waking up in Ushuaia,
Argentina at 7:30 a.m. with the sun shining
through the window in Hostel Yakush. It was
hard to believe that we finally made it! The sun
had been up since 3 a.m. A grueling nine-hour
flight, and an additional four hours on another
flight, plus numerous delays resulted in a total
travel time of about 29-hours. Ushuaia was the
first stop before boarding the ship to achieve
our final destination, Antarctica.
On the first day in Ushuaia, we were
roused early in order to accomplish all we
had planned for the day. First we had a very
common Argentine breakfast, toasted bread
stacked almost a foot high and several types
of jelly.
After breakfast, we packed our bags and
headed to Hotel Albatross, where Sabrina
Kizman, a representative of the local tourism
board, gave a presentation on the effects o f
tourism on the infrastructure and development of Ushuaia. She discussed how the tourism industry provided many jobs for locals,
but also increased the amount of solid waste
to be managed. Waste management is further
complicated because Argentine laws require
the waste to stay within the island of Tierra
Del Fuego unless the materials have been
converted to another product. Also, Ushuaia’s

population has expanded significantly over the
last few decades and they are working to increase housing to accommodate the demand.
Following Kizman’s lecture, we reviewed the
two field study projects. The first focused on
how pelagic bird diversity changes with the
latitude gradient. The second project examined
the sustainability of Antarctic ecotourism. Project teams discussed their game plans for study
design and data collection. We also discussed
our daily journaling assignment. This was to
help us remember and document our travels,
what we accomplished, and what we hoped to
accomplish the next day and how it related to
field and on-line courses.
After lunch, it was time to head to the dock
to board our ship to Antarctica. The ship, the
Akademik Sergey Vavilov (Vavilov) was a
former Soviet research vessel, and would be
our home for the next nine days. We all packed
in to a small un-air-conditioned bus and made
a strange, less than five-minute drive to the
boat docks (pedestrians are not allowed on the
dock). We were instructed to only go three at
a time up the gangway, because this would be
required when getting to and from the zodiac
boats. Passengers on the ship represented 17
different countries.
After a quick champagne toast and a safety
drill, the seabird research group began practic-

ing their bird identification skills. The bird
populations would be different in the Beagle
Channel (which is located near land in Argentina) compared to species found in the more
southern latitudes.

Dec. 21:

We woke to the fury of the Drake Passage,
the stretch of water that separates Argentina
from Antarctica. The “Drake Shake,” as it is
sometimes called, had 32-foot waves and 50knot winds. Unless you were an experienced
sea-goer, walking during the Drake Shake was
challenging. Many of us were seasick in bed.
Eating food or other activities was difficult. A
lot of people just nibbled on fruit and eventually ventured out of their rooms to look at the
waves crash onto the ship.
The first lecture of the day was presented by
Tony Beck, a guide from One Ocean expeditions, on “Introduction to Birding and Binoculars 101.” Beck discussed techniques to use in
bird identification and advice on purchasing
binoculars. We then went to the “Seabirds of
the Southern Ocean” lecture presented by
ornithologist Simon Boyes and learned about
the species of birds that we were most likely to
see on our journey to Antarctica.
Before lunch, passengers were directed to
go to the mudroom to make sure our wet
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