National Geographic: Antarctic Wildlife Adventure (1991)

[bunniefuu]

This is the most empty place

on earth

the place almost

no one goes-Antarctica.

It's the last continent discovered

by explorers,

the last place to be charted and

examined and understood,

the last place to be inhabited.

Even the wildlife here knows

this land is different,

and perhaps it is a mark of

how harsh this land can be

that there is no creature here

that cannot swim or fly away.

This is the last continent on earth

a refuge of sorts for wilderness

and for explorers.

Jerome and Sally Poncet

are explorers and naturalists

who live on a sheep farm

in the Falkland Islands.

A half-dozen times in the

last decade or so,

they've sailed 900 miles south

five days at sea,

to the islands scattered along

the famed Antarctic Penin

Other expeditions come here with

millions of dollars

and the power of governments

to support them.

Sally and Jerome sail by themselves

in a small yacht,

accompanied only by their children,

three boys

Dion-10, live... 8

and Diti-5.

They trek on remote, rocky islands

trying to learn more about this

once unknown and foreboding

continent of rock and ice

while there's still time to protect

the unique balance of

life that exists here.

As usual the Poncets are beginning

this voyage in December

high summer and vacation time

for the boys,

when some days might get as warm as

This will not last long

the Poncets know.

Winter and ice are never

very distant here.

Now development is coming too.

As the Ponects will discover anew

on this voyage,

this last frontier is changing

as never before.

The poncets have gradually come to

concentrate on the odd

and endearing birds

that are native to this place.

They're concerned now that penguins

may become threatened

because many countries and claiming

interests in the riches

that may lie here.

The Poncets will use their boat-part

research vessel,

part home-to search out

penguin colonies all along

the Antarctic Peninsula.

The peninsula reaches up some

toward south America.

The poncets goal is to survey the

size of penguin colonies,

that is, to count them

all the way to Marguerite Bay

at the bottom of the peninsula

even further if the ice

will allow them.

In earlier voyages, they've found

many colonies

no one else has ever seen.

Deception Island-near

the northern end of the peninsula,

early stop for the Poncets,

and the site of a big colony

of one of the three penguin species

dominant on the peninsula: chinstraps.

Scientists use penguins as a

key indicator species

to gauge the health of the entire

delicate Antarctic ecosystem.

To do that, though, they must know

how many penguins are actually here.

If the penguin population changes

radically,

the scientists will know something

is wrong here.

That is why the poncets sail and

climb to these remote places

to count the birds.

You can do a rough estimate by just

counting up groups of say

groups of 100.

That's a very rough estimate.

If you want to do it properly, though,

you've got to map out the area

that the colony's occupying

and then work up average density

of the colony and multiply that

...a couple of days work

to do it accurately.

But you can get a good estimate

if you take your time.

In a couple of hours, you can get

a pretty good estimate of it.

But we just compare it with colonies

we know from elsewhere,

like one in particular with 30 to

It's a lot smaller than this.

This is huge. Must be one of the

biggest chinstrap penguin colonies

down on the peninsula

I think-this one

It's gotta be, I think. It's huge.

Chinstrap penguins seldom change mates

and they prefer to return to the

same nest sites each year

to hatch the young.

The nests are rings of small stones

set just out of pecking range

of incubating neighbors.

The females usually take the

first shift sitting on the eggs,

fasting for up to 8 days.

Then, the males take over and the

females can feed again.

Some of the small, shrimp-like krill

they find at sea is regurgitated

for the penguin chicks.

Sally does not spend much time with

the colonies here on

Deception Island, though.

This time her work lies further south.

Jerome is French; Sally is Australian.

They sail aboard the 50-foot

steel hulled Damien II.

It can look like a frail ship in

amid all the ice and rock,

but the ship can take the poncets

places that others cannot go,

which helps them make a living:

They charter the boat for scientists

doing coastal surveys.

Indeed, Jerome knows his way along

this coast, intimately.

He first came here almost 20 years ago

accompanied by his friend,

Gerard Janichon,

who has rejoined him for this voyage.

It's unusual to sail in the

Antarctic now,

but it was truly extraordinary then.

Theirs was the first yacht to sail

the peninsula coast.

The adventure made them heroes

in France.

Fees from a book allowed

each of them to build bigger

and better versions of first vessel.

But new boats don't eliminate the

four hour watches throughout

this two-month journey

or the sameness of stored food,

or the confining conditions

of life at sea.

These they simply get used to.

But anyone who's lived on a yacht or

on a boat can tell you,

you get used to shifts:

four hours on, four hours off.

Or whatever you happen to do.

And it's just something

you get used to.

You can't have exactly what you want

to eat or drink

when you feel like it.

Or you can't wash every day

if you want to,

or you can't go down to the

nearest pub for a drink

just to get away from it.

You just accept that.

It just, it might look difficult

to people,

but until you... it would be far more

difficult for him to have

to get into a car every morning

and drive to work.

The Damien II averages 26 miles

a day now,

with stops along the way.

Working from cove to cove

they arrive at Cuverville Island

a breeding site for many

many Gentoo penguins.

Their pelts are sleek as fur

but like all penguins,

these are true birds.

Short, thick feathers help

insulate them from the cold,

and at the same time

lie close to the body to help

the speedy swimmers in the water.

This will be the first egg

because its dirtier,

and this is the second.

The second egg is suppose to be

a bit smaller that the first.

But they look about the same size

really.

That one there, though-she's just

about to get off

that-you can really tell

the difference there.

The Gentoos are apt to form life-long

attachments among breeding pairs

although they are not so particular

about which nest site

they use from season to season.

On the peninsula,

it takes about five weeks

for penguin eggs to hatch.

The parents watch over them for

another month or so,

and then leave the chicks in

large groups while the parents

are off gathering good.

One or two months later the young

penguins begin to feed on their own.

What beautiful nests these ones are

well made

anyway, with the stones like that

and they all seem to be

just sitting right.

You remember the chinstraps at

Deception-

all mucky, all smelly

in all directions?

These are all nice and neat...

I think these are probably the

prettiest of the birds.

By now Sally and Jerome

have witnessed this cycle of

penguin life many times

and still Antarctica fascinates them.

The first time we come...

just well, put the foot ashore.

That was an achievement

for us at least.

And we are very pleased with that.

We've been a bit scared

we've been fighting

to reach Antarctica... and after

we come back a bit more confident

and you go a bit further.

And that's what we've done

just going farther and farther

each time, knowing a bit more.

And when you start to know a place

you-why,

it starts to belong to you or

you belong to this place.

And that's what's happened to us.

Often while Sally is counting penguins

the children explore for themselves.

At the shore here, they've spotted a

leopard seal coming close.

Penguins that survive to adulthood

may live for 20 years.

They're safe on land

with practically no predators.

But in sea

there is danger from seals

especially the leopard seal.

Diti is the youngest of the boys.

Live, the middle boy, finds that

this summer,

geology has captured his attention.

Dion is the oldest

a budding artist

with an interest

in mechanical things also.

Some of this Antarctic exploration

that the boys share

can look dangerous to an outsider.

But plainly, Sally and Jerome see

great benefits in bringing

the children with them.

At home in the Falklands

a traveling schoolmaster

visits for a couple of weeks every

other month or so

with lessons from Sally in between.

On board the Damien II,

the boys learn about earth science

by splashing where boiling volcanic

waters mix with the near frozen sea.

The boys bang away at rock

looking for gold

or fools gold even

and making plans to get rich and buy

firecrackers back at home.

You can just see the difference

that it's made to them.

And coming down here for three months

you can see how many people that

meet and what they're introduced

to and what they're capable

of learning

there are other ways of getting the

same education or the same facts

but this is a very good way of

getting it, you see.

At Foyn Harbor on the peninsula

the boys explore a site leftover

from one of the first significant

human impacts on the Antarctic.

It's an old whaler's anchorage

where boats once filled casks with

glacier water.

The whalers are long gone

a whaling ship lies abandoned

where it ran aground.

In the hold of the wreck

the boys find dozens of the

cone-shaped tips for harpoons

that once took tens of thousands

of whales in a season

until some species were threatened

with extinction.

At last, international protest put a

stop to commercial whaling,

and there are signs that

the animals may be recovering in

the southern oceans.

Three humpbacks approach the ship.

Their size and curiosity must have

made them easy targets for the whalers

But whale hunting was only

among the first human endeavors

to mark the Antarctic.

Near Palmer Station

an American research site,

Dion joins a party of skin divers

from the base

who are going to see what remains

of one of the biggest environmental

threats the continent has seen.

Actually, we're... the wreck today to

look for oil spills

or oil leaks they've plugged up with

wooden... and splash... last year.

The divers are protected as much as

possible by their dry suits

but the water is frigidly cold:

Early last year, an Argentine supply

ship that doubled as a

tourist boat ran aground.

Passengers used home video cameras

to take these pictures.

Within hours they were rescued

but four days later

the ship had turned on its side.

The ship's cargo of diesel oil

began to spill.

A Chilean navy ship arrived quickly

to contain the damage,

but it was a month before Argentine

and American crews managed

to seal the wreck.

It had about 250,000 gallons on board.

And they're estimating that

about half of that

It might have been worse if the ship

had carried heavy,

black crude oil instead of diesel fuel

but still scientists worry that

their research will be affected

because the once pristine area

is no longer so pure.

The wreck has gone through a

single Antarctic winter,

but the damage has been very severe.

It's kind of like a beer can

has been totally crushed.

And there use to be two

little copters there.

There's no sign of them at all now,

other than two tires,

and the highly deck is mostly crushed.

And there's no visible signs of

oil leaking out anymore.

Any cleanup operation would be

difficult here.

Indeed, all along the peninsula

it's clear that very often

no one bothers to clean the mess

that is left behind.

The penguins hardly seem to notice

but nevertheless

many environmentalists are concerned

that we may spoil the last really

large wilderness left on earth;

before we begin to understand it.

The Damien II has been at sea for

about a month,

with dozens of stops so far

for penguin surveys.

Now Jerome has set course for

Dream Island,

about half way down the peninsula.

The island has a large colony of the

third species of penguins

the Poncets are counting:

Adelies.

There are remarkable elephant seal

colonies here also,

and for the seals, too

the Antarctic summer is the

season of the young.

Well, it's a bit slippery in all

this muck-especially

where the penguins have been.

I don't want you to fall in that.

They've been fed by their mothers

until they're sort of round

and their mother's go off and

leave them and they have to survive

during the feeding time...

And they lie around on the

beaches in groups.

And they're really sweet...

They're very beautiful to look at

at that stage.

As they get a bit older

they're not so nice.

It doesn't look as if they're

any more chinstraps in this area.

They seem to be confined to that

area back there.

So I think I'll go back...

In the water by the beach

young male seals play at combat.

They are too young now to really

harm one another.

Later, when they develop the droopy

noses that account for the

elephant seals' name,

they will fight seriously for

groups of females.

All along the coast, the Poncets

find sites of earlier explorers,

many of them no longer in use.

This cabin was once a

research station,

but it's been deserted for a long time

Inside, there are copies of letters

and dispatches that are decades old.

...shall be returning home about

June and anticipate finding

civilization somewhat bewildering.

So would like to be considered for

service as relief warden

at a small hostile in the highlands.

It's the kind of thing, now over

and it really is the kind of thing

now you can say,

it's part of the history of this place

And it should, really should be

preserved and looked after

to keep it like this.

And all this food!

You'll never get food

like this again-these boxes.

No one eats this kind of stuff anymore

But this is how a British base

worked 30 years ago.

And it's really worthwhile keeping

and doing something about.

The men who lived and worked in

bases like these

were taking part in an extraordinary

study effort in the Antarctic

led by a dozen countries during the

International Geophysical Year, 1957.

The scientists paved the way for

governments go to on cooperating,

and eventually, there was an

Antarctic Treaty.

It's worked ever since to hold

Antarctica as a scientific reserve.

Today, tourist ships send groups

like this one from New York's

Museum of Natural History ashore

to the sites where once

only scientists went.

Antarctica's past and present

meet here,

and perhaps show the way to the

future as well.

Some environmentalists want to see

the entire continent

now made into a world park

no development or exploitation allowed

the Antarctic to remain as it is

a place for research,

and for amateur naturalists to see

the greatest unspoiled wilderness left.

Some of the old Geophysical Year

stations are still operating.

The British base Faraday,

for instance, plays a role in

researching the periodic

huge loss of ozone in the atmosphere

over the southern polar region.

Further south

another British base Rothera,

serves as a headquarters for inland

science projects that can

only be reached by plane.

The flights take off from a runway

cleared from the glacier,

with a path well marked

so the aircraft doesn't slide into

one of the nearby crevasses

that split the surface.

From the air,

an observer easily sees the extent

of one of the great treasures

and paradoxes of Antarctica

ice.

This is the driest continent.

Hardly any snow or rain ever falls.

But what does fall is frozen

in place and remains.

So Antarctica is both the continent

with the least precipitation

and the one with the most water

almost all of it locked up in ice

Some estimates are that 70 percent

of the world's freshwater is here.

The ice here on the plateau also

provides an ancient atmospheric record

that's key to studying new

phenomenon

such as the greenhouse effect.

These operations are just underway.

When full drilling begins

the scientists will be able to

plunge the drill bit through centuries

to see what changes have

occurred over time.

on board the Damien II again

the Antarctic summer is progressing,

although it is still

not dark after midnight.

Indeed, Jerome calls this

the planet of light.

There are only a few stops left

for the travelers,

one of them a special place

for Sally and Jerome.

More than ten years ago

on their first voyage to the

Antarctic together,

they decided to stay over in the

long darkness of winter.

They had only the Damien II

for a base

frozen in a harbor

here at Avian Island.

It was a really big surprise for us

to see just how many penguins

there were

or how many birds

there were on that island,

but really surrounded by them.

They found extraordinary life

including 70,000 Adelie penguins

on the island.

Avian is located at the top of

Marguerite Bay,

and it's the breeding ground for

much of the bird life

that lives and hunts throughout

the Bay region.

If something happened here

it could seriously affect

bird life in the entire Bay area.

Besides the Adelies's...

every single bit of that island

is covered in birds.

And you're surrounded by birds.

And you really do live

part of that cycle of the summer

season with them, completely.

But the poncets are disturbed to

learn the birds may soon be

sharing the island.

A Chilean scientist from a

nearby base if examining Avian

as a possible site for future studies.

Sally and Jerome are

beginning to worry that

the many scientists and bases

could soon overwhelm the fragile

wilderness they have come to study.

Jerome navigates the Damien II

through the mouth of a narrow passage

at Terra Firma Island.

They are very far south now

nearly at the base of the peninsula

where conditions are terribly harsh.

Some years, the sea is frozen

solid here,

the air is very cold.

Nonetheless, small patches of grass

and pearlwort flourish here,

unexceptional in any way

except that these are the southernmost

flowering plants known to exist

anywhere-the furthest outpost of green

in a world that is almost all grays

and blacks and ice white.

It was the Poncets who made this

discovery

and reported it to the

scientific world

although they now realize this, too

may draw others.

People have realize what this is

and realize how they can damage it

if they come too close,

and how they can keep away and still enjoy it.

There's a bit of a compromise

to doing it,

and you can't just ban people from

coming to certain places all over

just because they might damage it.

They've got to be taught

how not to damage it

so that they can come in and enjoy it.

Many explorers must pause to wonder

a little at what they do and

at what will be done

by those who inevitably will follow.

Not many will follow this far, however

The Damien II is entering what is

called pack ice,

a great plain that's frozen

not quite solid.

You can feel that-that you've very

far south.

And there's no one else in the pack.

And you're nothing much more than

another little bit of ice.

You can really feel it as a

living thing.

You can feel it, you can see it

moving up and down with the swell

as though it's breathing.

And you see animals... the whales

which come up to breathe

just behind the boat because there's

no other space for it, and penguins.

The steel hull of the ship allows it

to smash its way through.

The ice will get worse soon

as it gets colder,

and then it will not be possible

to get through at all.

Jerome must judge what is safe.

They have hone as far as they can;

the Damien II must turn back toward

King George Island.

From the air,

the ice floes look almost impenetrable

Once you've been through a really

bad storm

and just got out or you've had to go

through a lot of ice and

just managed to get through

then the next day,

it's beautiful weather-each time,

it's really very gratifying,

each time, and very satisfying.

And you really feel as if you've

earned what you've done.

It's the feeling of it being very

difficult here and you've managed

to wade through in spite of that.

But all along the peninsula

it is clear that as

with all frontiers

this one is developing.

In the time since they left the

British base at Rothera,

perhaps the biggest cargo ship ever

to come this far south

has arrived and begum unloading

bulldozers and rock crushers,

and housing for construction workers.

The small landing strip on the snow

field above Rothera is to be

replaced by a gravel runway,

so bigger planes can come

and go regularly.

It will mean blasting away part

of a hillside,

but the scientists say it must be done

if their work is to go on.

The Antarctic Treaty

which has worked to protect

the polar region for three decades

may be reviewed next year.

Some countries are

interested in exploring

for oil here or for minerals.

Already there is an agreement for

exploitation that the

treaty nations are considering.

Some think offshore drilling

for oil is certain,

and that that is going to mean the

greatest change yet for Antarctica.

Oh, we are next to the

first area actually where

oil will be exploited next to this...

and maybe this one will die covered

with oil, maybe not.

Or maybe he will be starving

very hungry,

because there will be no more food.

After that will be our children.

Meanwhile,

building goes ahead especially

on King George Island

the Damien II's final destination.

If you look at what's

happening at Rothera...

what's happening here.

This is the first steps in

opening the place up.

That's for sure.

To what, I don't know.

The rest of the world is still

over the horizon,

but it seems to get closer everyday.

Frontiers are wild places.

Once we thought they were all

savage and needed conquering.

This one doesn't seem

so savage anymore.

Before it's conquered

it may be worth asking what the

conquest would mean,

and perhaps we should ask too,

what will happen to the explorers

indeed to all of us,

when the frontiers are gone.