Slowly the ship came to life this morning as we pulled into Moon Bay. There is an Argentine base here and plenty of great wildlie. The chinstrap and gentoo penguins were evereywhere relaxing on their eggs. I sat on top of a ridge for a while then I spotted a seal on the beach in the distance. I was not too excited because I thought it was a common crabeater seal. However, as soon as he started to move, the seal stood up on all fours and began walking toward the icy surf. I took off down the slope, hoping to get an upclose view of this animal before it disappeared into the waves.
(For those of you that don't know seals too well, the only seals that walk on all fours that live in the Antarctica area are fur seals. I am doing my research on fur seals, but because of their breeding habits, they should not have been in the continental area! So it was a HUGE bonus to see him.) I was slow moving through the snow and stumbled every few steps and sink into the powder. I really wanted to see this fur seal that was not on South Georgia Island for some reason, and as I got closer I saw the huge gash behind his flipper from and orca encounter.
Fur seals are interesting because all other seals undulate on their bellies, but they have the shoulder muscle structure and the ability to curl their hind flippers under to walk like a bear or a dog. They also have exposed ear flaps, unlike any other Antarctic Seal.
After the seal went into the water, I walked back up to the ridge where the Gentoos were nesting on the rocks, and I saw two scuas dive into a penguin nest, steal an egg, break it open, and fight over the contents. We also saw a few Weddell Seals on the island. They are sooo cute!
The penguins are curious, and if you sit still enough, they will come within an arms length of you. This has happened quite a few times to me already! We moved back onto the ship for lunch and now we're off to a new landing site!
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