Report 6 February - Team B on board Pelagic Deception Island

Sat 6th Feb 21.30


The volcano is still active here on Deception Island. Today we explored the island, visiting the remains of the whaling station and walking in the hills. On the beaches spouts of steam curled around our legs. You could warm your hands in the little streams that flowed from the higher grounds into the harbour. The water was warm and in some places incredibly hot.

The strange thing about this whole island is that you think you see black rocks, but most of what you see is ice covered by ashes, dust and pebbles. Adrian found this the biggest and most fantastic deception about this island. You think you are walking on rocks while in reality you are walking on glaciers.

In the afternoon Jerry and Kirsten climbed up one of the higher hills of the island where they had an amazing view over the cliffs and the sea. In the distance they saw huge floating icebergs and even the vague contours of the peninsula on the horizon. These open spaces and vistas offer relief from the cramped conditions on board shared with with seven people who until 2 weeks ago were complete strangers. When you normally like to be alone these circumstances teach you a lot about yourself, other people and their and your own ways of reacting and behaving.

While walking in the hills we thought about the fact that for weeks we haven't seen any insects or plants, except for some green,red or yellow mosses. There are just the few leaves of mint aboard pelagic that we took from Puerto Williams. Already we have a longing to see trees and flowers again. But we must wait 3 more weeks till we return to South America . For the moment we are still fascinated by ice, icebergs and animals which like low temperatures.

The whaling station is a desolate place. The wooden buildings were decaying in the salty air. The huge tanks the whalers used for the storage of oil and fuels still remain, slowly rusting away. This place lookes like an eerie industrial museum. We talked amongst ourselves about the proper way of dealing with these buildings and equipment. Should the tanks and ruins dating from the beginning of this century remain as a reminder or should they be removed.

In many ways this is an old problem, because the economic incentive that brought this change to Antarctica died with the whale population. One of today's problems for Antarctica is driven by a new economic imperative, tourism. More than 10.000 tourists will visit Antarctica this year. Today we saw two cruise-ships arrive. They let dozens of people ashore and it is natural to become concerned about the effect on wildlife and the silence of the wilderness. Some people argue that those who come here will become ambassadors for Antarctica because they will want to preserve it.

Antarctic cruise ship.

Rinie Meurs,a Dutch expedition leader on one of the cruise ships and a passionate wildlife photographer, argues that people shouldn't make such a fuss about a few tourists going to a huge continent like Antarctica. They go to about ten hot spots and don't do much harm. They are very well instructed about how to behave whilst in the Antarctic. "One cola tin on Antarctica is hardly worth worrying about, the real problems are in the rest of the world, where pollution is still going on, too much energy is being used and wildlife is seriously being threatened. Whilst we agreed with him on this perspective we feel it is still very important to keep this last unspoiled continent as it is and protect it from being exploited for mere short term economic profit.

Our next destination is a whalers wreck from the turn of the century at Enterprise Island in the Gerlaiche street, from there we will sail along to Paradise Bay, Anvers island, Lemaire Channel and many other special spots. There the most spectacular sights await us. The best has yet to come?.

Kirsten Kuipers