Most of the time it's easy to take the wildlife here for granted. In the summer in particular, there are penguins by the thousands, whales spy-hopping boats, giant petrels circling over head and seals battling on bergy bits. Yesterday was a great day for wildlife by any measure. First, there was the crab-eater seal that I discovered floating on a piece of ice as I began my morning boat maintenance. It had two deep gouges on it's belly, possibly having come from a battle with a leopard seal. The seal was lounging as the Gould came into port and hardly bothered by the orange monolith crashing into its bed and spinning it around, sounding horns, casting lines. It was definitely alive and kicking and I have often seen them with large scars on their bodies.
Later that afternoon, thanks to a tip from the divers, a couple of us were lucky to spot a wayward king penguin on the shore of Torgersen Island. These penguins are very cool and dive to depths of 1000 feet. The king penguin is the second largest species of penguin at about 3 ft tall, second only to the emperor penguin. The first I have ever seen and a very rare sight around these parts. Why was he there? Alone? Contemplative? The world may never know.
3 comments:
My son thought the crab-seal was cool, but it looks mostly dead.
I think the crab eater was just waiting for his chance at revenge!
Does he have blood on his chest? Maybe he had to flee the law. Maybe he's a fugitive penguin.
Great pics though.
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