Godthul and Grytviken, South Georgia Island, January 5, 2013

Godthul is Norwegian for “Good Harbor”.  We are anchoring this morning in Godthul and I have a last chance to see the Macaroni Penguins via a Zodiac cruise.  It’s either that or another overland hike to Grytviken.  I am electing to take the Zodiac cruise.  Feeling better this morning but still not 100%.  It turns out that many of the other passengers are much worse off than I. David from England is lying abed and according to his roommate “feeling like he’s dying.”

Well, I did make it over to see the Macaroni Penguins.  Their preferred habitat is more exposed conditions right at the sea.

View of the Macaroni Penguin colony from a bouncing Zodiac

We cruised over a couple of miles along the coastline in a Zodiac.  The swells were fairly large and there was lots of kelp.  We also cruised past a few icebergs, which are very abundant on this side of the island.

One of the Zodiacs got too close to a calving iceberg and nearly swamped.  The people on the boat got quite a story out of that.

Close-up of a couple of Macaronis. 

Here's a bit more about some of the other "shipmates."  Janet Champion is from Maryland and used to work for the Smithsonian.  She is in her 70s and quite entertaining but with a pleasant disposition.  Leon Long is an emeritus professor at the Jackson School.  He still teaches introductory classes though.  Both of them really love geology and spend their time reading the literature that Ian Dalziel has provided as well as the library books on Antarctica.

In the afternoon we took the ship over and anchored near Grytviken.  It is a sad place.  Literally tens of thousands of whales were cut up here in an incredible industrial setting.  As Richard Alley pointed out in one of his lectures, it was the shift to hydrocarbons that prevented the ultimate total extinction of the whales. The South Georgia Historical Trust maintains a museum here.  Nearby is the King Edward research station of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).  The BAS maintains the fisheries in this area and performs analyses of the health of the environment.  The BAS base is staffed year round and we had a brief lecture by two, young scientists from the station.  One is a fisheries biologist and the other studies the Fur Seals and the Gentoo Penguins, as they believe that these are top line predators in this area.  The thought being that everything is dependent on the krill.

As everywhere on South Georgia there are abundant Fur and Elephant Seals.  According to the biologists the Fur Seals are probably approaching the carrying capacity of the environment.  

Female Elephant Seal belching greetings. 

One of the placards detailing the sad history of whaling here.

The remains of a whaling hunter ship.
Note the harpoon gun on the bow.

One interesting fact that came out of this is that the mother Fur Seals will often be gone for up to 10 days at a time and the pups must maintain themselves on their stored body fat. Of course, this is slightly different than the story I got from Pauline Carr earlier. 

The remains of an industry.

Onshore at Grytviken I was chased by a Fur Seal!  I no longer subscribe to the thought that they are cute. The damn thing would not respond to the normal clapping of hands and waving of arms but kept coming for me.  Thankfully, I was able to escape without incurring injury!