Januari 13, 2017
coming up on jonathan bird's blue world, jonathanheads to antarctica at the bottom of the earth to explore the incredible wilderness and marinelife of this frozen continent! don't go away! hi, i’m jonathan bird and welcome to myworld! antarctica! the frozen continent. its hostileconditions and exotic marine life are legendary. for years i have yearned to travel to thebottom of the earth to see this magnificent frozen world for myself. and finally, i’vedone it. getting from the united states all the wayto antarctica bottom of the earth take nearly a week. and it starts with a flight to ushuaia,argentina at the tip of tierra del fuego often called the gateway to antarctica, ushuaiais a beautiful little coastal city in patagonia
at the base of a large mountain range. many of the ships departing for antarcticause ushuaia as their port. ushuaia is surrounded by a large nationalpark. rugged, craggy mountains tower above ushuaia.they’re beautiful, but of course, i’m more interested in the underwater scenery. so, i’m spending a day in ushuaia to doa couple dives in the beagle channel. the beagle channel is a long, narrow passageof water protected by land on both sides. well, we’re finally going to go diving inushuaia and i’m really excited to try to see something that they’re famous for. youmostly see it in the restaurants downtown,
but i want to see it alive—the giant kingcrab. captain carlos from ushuaia divers untiesthe boat from the dock and we’re on our way, under a beautiful blue sky. it’s summerhere in the southern hemisphere, and even though ushuaia is very far south, the airtemperature regularly makes it into the 60 degree range, sometimes even the 70s. the water temperature is more like 45 degrees…aboutwhat i’m used to diving at home in new england. that means i will be wearing my dry suit timeto get ready. it keeps the water out with an airtight zipper like the one on a spacesuit. unfortunately, the dry suit is quite buoyantfrom all the air inside, so i have to wear
a lot of weight to submerge. my gear is cumbersomeand heavy, but that’s the price you pay to dive in cold water. ahaa!! alright! i’m ready! well, let’s go check it out! underwater, the beagle channel is beautiful—filledwith huge kelp forests stretching towards the surface. this kelp is a kind of fast-growingalgae that can grow several feet in length every day. swimming through the kelp is really fun. ifeel like indiana jones exploring a wild jungle. the kelp can grow tall without a strong trunkbecause it floats, thanks to these little
air pockets at the base of each leaf. the kelp is so thick, it blocks out the sun. as i look around the bottom, i see there arelots of other things growing here, like a variety of sponges encrusting this rock outcropping. but clearly, the beagle channel’s most impressiveanimals are the crabs. everywhere i look, crabs jump out of my way as i approach. mostof them are these little red crabs with a body about the size of a quarter. but there are also decorator crabs, coveredin camouflage, apparently willing to hunt the smaller crabs.
and another crab, climbing the kelp to safety. but at last i find what i came for—the crabthat rules this patch of ocean—the king crab. although they get much bigger than this, eventhis small one is a quite a handful. after i put it down, the crab takes off throughthe seaweed on the bottom. finally settling back to pose for my cameraagain. at the end of my dive, i surface from theland of the crabs and we enjoy a surface interval on a small island in the channel. the viewsof the surrounding area are beautiful. patagonia is just gorgeous!
as much as i have enjoyed ushuaia, the followingmorning finds me rolling my gear down the dock for my departure to antarctica. my home away from home: the aleksey marychev,a 210 foot long russian research vessel with an ice-strengthened hull. i meet the staff of the ship, who luckilyfor me speak english quite well, and then it’s time to board. i’ll have plenty oftime to put my gear together on the long run to antarctica. a little later, they untie us from the dock,and it’s time to embark on the trip of a lifetime!
on our way down the beagle channel to openwater, we pass a small rock island covered in south american sea lions. and then we pass the famous beagle channellighthouse. after leaving the beagle channel, we willround cape horn into the drake passage and make our way more than 600 miles south untilwe reach the protection afforded by end of the antarctic peninsula. until then, we are at the mercy of some ofthe most violent and unpredictable seas in the world. from the bridge, the first officer drivesthe ship with a confidence that comes from
many years of making this journey. our progress is charted on a map by a gps. so far the weather has been mild and the seascalm. the drake passage is considered the roughestsection of water in the world, and boy did we get lucky today! later the fog closes in but the sea remainscalm. i have almost three days of this until we get there. even my tiny cabin isn’t too uncomfortablefor a nap. the next day the sun is out, but we stillaren’t there!
you know two and a half days is a long timeto be sitting on a ship with nothing to do, but when we get to antarctica, it’s gonnabe worth it. yet another day to go, i’m running out ofthings to do. hello? can you hear me now ? (scream from woman) uyuk? maduka? whduka? forget about it (snoring)
at last, land appears in the distance! wemade it to antarctica! the ship is covered in a fresh layer of snow,but the sun is trying to burn through the clouds. icebergs float by. i can hardly believe myeyes! i’m actually here! and we don’t waste any time. our dive teamstarts suiting up for our first dive to explore the underwater world of antarctica. of course, i’m using my dry suit again,but this time instead of 45 degree water, i’m expecting 30 degree water! our zodiac goes over the side, and we’reoff with our dive master jonas driving the
boat. i’m really excited! i can’t wait to getbelow the surface and start exploring! but first, i need my warmest dive gloves!it’s very interesting to do any thing when you have gigantic fat cold water mitts on.just putting on you dive computer take about ten minutes. alright i’m bundled up withmy heaviest undergarments. i have so much insulation i can barely move. well, i’m a long way from the caribbean.i came all the way to antarctica to go diving and i guess i should have expected that therewas going to be ice in the water. i’m assuming that means it’s going to be pretty cold.i’ll let you know!
woo hoo! oh yeah, that’s a little chilly!oh baby!! i’m floating in an ocean filled with icebergsdrifting by. this water is below freezing that’s possible because it’s salt waterthis is fresh water so the ice is frozen floating in it. this water is so cold if you fell inthis water with out a dry suit on you could be dead in five minutes. and that begs thequestion what could possibly live is such cold water? my first glimpse of the underwater terrainreveals mostly just some seaweed on the bottom, flowing gently in the current. but a closer look reveals a community of bottom-dwellinginvertebrates, including vast armies of limpets,
snail-like animals with cone-shaped shells.they eat the algae on the rocks. a bright red sea star hunts down limpets forlunch. nearby, anemones wait for prey, their stingingtentacles armed and ready for an unwary fish. a sea cucumber uses feathery, branching armsto grab plankton out of the water to eat. but then, i look up from the bottom and somethingcatches my eye. it’s a gentoo penguin, swimming around withthe grace of a dolphin and the speed of a torpedo! these birds might not be able to fly, butunderwater they sure can swim. their wings are adapted for providing underwater propulsion,and few animals in the ocean can swim with
such grace and speed as a penguin. in the limited visibility, they are hard tofilm because i never know from which direction they will swim. just above the water on the beach, thousandsof gentoos are warming up in the sun. a gentoo penguin is easy to identify becauseof its bright red beak. many of these gentoos are barely more thanchicks, waiting patiently for their downy baby feathers to fall off. these poofy featherskeep them warm when they are little, but they’re not good for swimming. i watch a group of young penguins practicingtheir swimming technique in a small tide-pool.
the tide pool offers protection from the openocean, and it’s a nice shallow spot to try swimming and hunting. unfortunately, thereis nothing here to eat, so foraging for food doesn’t produce a meal. as the birds get older and their adult feathersgrow in, they start gathering down by the ocean. soon, they take short hops into the freezingwater to hunt in the shallows for krill and small invertebrates. it doesn’t take long before they learn toswim like experts and take off to hunt together in groups.
penguins on the move porpoise in and out ofthe water like dolphins—but then they can hop right back up on land like no dolphini’ve ever seen! who needs to fly when you can swim like this? soon we head back to the ship and and pullanchor to move a few hours south. we’re making our way towards the polar circle, andpassing some incredible scenery on the way! the next day, back in the zodiacs, we headtowards a shipwreck. the governor was a whaling ship that caught fire in 1916, so the captainran it aground to save the crew. i drop into the water to explore the southernmostshipwreck of my life. although the bow is out of the water, the stern lies over 70 feetbelow. it’s a long swim down the side of
the hull to get to the stern. the hull is covered in patches of beautifulyellow finger sponges. i didn’t realize that sponges like this could be found in suchcold water. looking closer at the sponges, i discoveran antarctic blenny resting there. fish survive in this water because they have antifreezein their blood that keeps it from freezing, even when the water is below 32 degrees. suddenly, a huge shape catches my eye! it’s the biggest jelly i have ever seenin my life, swimming through the water with tentacles hanging down more than 50 feet!
i swim over to investigate this massive animal,and the bell of the jelly is more than two feet across! as i rise toward the surface at the end ofmy dive, i encounter a huge wall of ice. it’s an iceberg, that drifted into the bay. the wall of the iceberg is covered in dimples,like the ones on a golf ball. this pattern forms as the iceberg melts. thousands of tinybubbles are released from the melting ice as well, making the water near the iceberglook like a fizzy drink! the iceberg only rises a few feet above thesurface, but its more than thirty feet deep. when you see an iceberg floating by, there’snot that much above water sometimes, but that’s
because 90% of an iceberg is underwater. ifi flip it over, you can see just how much ice there is. that’s why icebergs are reallydangerous to ships, because you can’t see the part that’s hidden underwater. fun withice! let me get my arm under it. getting the gearout of the water and into the zodiac can be quite a challenge because of all the weighti have to carry. heading back to the ship, we have a littletime to unwind while we again change locations, heading even further south. we pass through the lemaire channel, filledwith floating chunks of ice. i can hear them bouncing off the bow, and i’m glad thatthis ship has an ice-strengthened hull!
the next morning we are at it again, launchingthe zodiacs over the side and preparing for another adventure. i carry my camera down to the boat and we’reoff. today we’re hunting quietly for a very special animal. and sure enough, we found them. leopard sealssleeping on an iceberg. these animals which reach 12 feet long, are the apex predatorsof the antarctic. there are no sharks in the waters of antarctica, but these seals fillthat niche in the food chain. soon, the leopard seals wake from their napand come over to investigate us. they have been known to bite and deflate zodiacswhen they are being territorial.
we watch carefully for a few minutes beforewe drop into the water with this animal. leopard seals are big, aggressive and have sharp teeth.but this one doesn’t look aggressive at all. i must admit, i’m a little apprehensiveas i prepare to roll into the water, but i’m also excited. i have wanted to film a leopardseal for a long time! the seal makes a few passes to check me out,but he seems a lot more curious than aggressive. i don’t follow the seal at all, but holdmy ground and keep the camera rolling. i let him come to me. divers are not very common down here. thisleopard seal has probably never seen a diver,
or a video camera before. either he sees his reflection in the lens,or he’s looking for a career in show business. either way, this animal sure doesn’t seemto mind my presence. the leopard seal is so curious, that he staysaround for more than an hour. i even have enough time to get my still camera and takea few pictures. look how big he is compared to me—it’sa good thing he’s in good mood. although leopard seals can hold their breathfor an hour while diving, this one lounging with me near the surface regularly pops hisnose above water for a breath. that was such a great dive with that leopardseal! man it was so friendly. it stayed with
me for over an hour, but i’ve been in thiswater for so long my face is frozen. with the circulation returning to my face,we head back to the ship, while i think of all the great things i saw in antarctica,from the towering walls of a tremendous iceberg….to a gigantic jelly. i saw incredible underwateracrobatics. and astonishingly beautiful scenery. penguins nesting among the ancient bones ofwhales. and humpbacks feeding in some of the most beautiful bays i have ever seen. from the surprising color of the invertebratesliving in the freezing water, to the stark beauty of the frozen landscape, antarcticais spectacular to behold. soon, we must turn north for our long journeyback to ushuaia.
as the sun sets on the passing ice, i haveplenty of time to reminisce about my adventures. as we leave the protection of the antarcticapeninsula, we discover the drake passage is not as kind as it was on the way down! but for that incredible hour i spent witha curious leopard seal, it’s worth it. antarctica might be cold, and the diving is hard work,but i’ll never forget this magical place way down at the bottom of the blue world.
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