Day 282: Antarctica Cruise Day 18 – Grytviken
Our second day in South Georgia proved to be the best, which was a stroke of luck for us as we had booked a kayak tour for this morning, and it ended up being the only day that wasn’t cancelled due to weather. However, we were initially disappointed when we found out our tour location was at Grytviken – the island’s first whaling station, now little more than a collection of rotting buildings, rusted tanks, and a tiny museum. This was more of a “place of historical interest,” not a wildlife hotspot, so we were concerned that the kayaking would hold little interest for us.
Turns out, we needn’t have worried – South Georgia is so jam-packed with wildlife that it’s hard to walk anywhere without tripping over a seal or penguin. Since we would be exploring the “town” of Grytviken by foot later in the day, our kayak tour took us along the coast in the opposite direction. As we paddled through dense kelp forests, we were surrounded by curious fur seals who would porpoise alongside us, and occasionally come up and sniff our paddles. (They weren’t quite as bold as the fur seals we kayaked with in South Africa, though.) While Igor took dozens of great shots of the seal colonies sleeping on the wild, uninhabited beaches, and great big bulls posing on rocks, we unfortunately discovered halfway through the tour that the good camera didn’t have a memory card in it! (Blame Lindsay – she forgot to replace it the night before.) At least we still had the GoPro!
After three days confined to the ship, we are so excited to set foot on land in Grytviken, South Georgia
While it might be more of a historical site, the island is just teeming with wildlife – a curious seal swims around our zodiac as we try to launch our kayaks, and a tiny black seal pup sleeps next to the rusted hull of a grounded whaler
Kayaking in South Georgia, surrounded by playful fur seals
Igor entices a brave fur seal to come visit us by gently tapping his paddle on the surface – the little guy couldn’t resist a sniff!
After our kayaking tour, we sat around the ship anxiously for about an hour until the next group got clearance to visit the shore. We made sure our camera was properly set-up with an empty memory card this time, and we headed back to Grytviken. While there were a lot of historical sights to explore (which we eventually did), we were entranced by the sheer number of animals loitering all over the beach – Igor quickly made up for all the lost shots from the morning kayak trip.
South Georgia has a population of about 3 million fur seals – so even though this beach isn’t a “hotspot”, the moment we step out of the zodiac, we are surrounded by fur seals
“You takin’ a picture of me? OK, make sure you get my good side.” This guy was really hamming it up for the camera! He is so cute – don’t you just want to put a beachball on his nose? J
The Antarctic Fur Seal is very different from the seals we’ve seen down in the Peninsula. Unlike the fatty Elephant, Weddell and Crabeater Seals, who keep warm from their thick layer of blubber, Fur Seals depend on their thick, two-layer fur coat to insulate them from the chilly Antarctic waters. They are also more mobile, as they can walk on all four flippers like a sea lion, whereas the “blubber seals” can only slither along, slug-like on their stomachs
Fur seals are more mobile, more active, and more aggressive than the all the other “blubber seals” we’ve seen so far, so it’s even more important to maintain the IAATO 5m distance to make sure we don’t get bit! The Expedition Team warns us not to run if a seal approaches us, as they will chase us like dogs. Instead, we are supposed to stand our ground and clap our hands, and the seals will back off. Both Lindsay and Igor had juvenile fur seals charge us – we each channeled our inner Cesar Milan and shouted, “NO! BAD SEAL!” Totally worked. #sealwhisperer
As we watch the napping seals, we notice other seals will boldly walk up and bully them out of their beds, claiming the comfiest patches of grass for themselves. The fur seals always need to be aware of their surroundings – this guy is literally sleeping with one eye open.
Prepare to have your cold heart melted by the most *adorable* seal puppies imaginable! Our timing was impeccable, as fur seals start giving birth in December, so the beaches of South Georgia were full of tiny, mewing black puppies. Unlike the blubber seals (who feed their young using their reserves of fat), the fur seal moms have to keep feeding themselves to produce enough milk to nurse their babies. As a result, the pups are left by themselves most of the day, so we were able to get really close to these precious little guys
While most of the pups were pretty shy, these guys seemed to gather enough courage between the two them to crawl up to Lindsay and Igor. The first pup gets right up to the GoPro and looks like he is about to bite it, when his friend decides to climb over him in order to sniff Igor’s knee! Igor finally had to stand up to avoid touching the little guy (although the temptation to pet him was almost overwhelming)
King Penguins! This colorful guy is the penguin we have been dying to see. While they look similar to the Emperor Penguins that exclusively breed on the Antarctic continent during the winter, the Kings nest in the more hospitable South Georgia Island thoughout the summer. We spot about a dozen King Penguins around Grytviken today, but none of them are breeding – these guys are just molting
These molting King Penguins look so uncomfortable – poor guys
This fur seal is jealous of the penguins stealing his spotlight! #photobomb
A handful of young Elephant Seals haul out into the grass to nap amongst the fur seals
While we could have spent all day with the animals, the main draw in Grytviken was, of course, the history. Our tour of the town started at the eastern edge of the beach, in front of the Whalers Cemetery – a small fenced-in plot of land with a couple dozen headstones. Most were low-ranking sailors, but they share their eternal resting ground with one of Antarctica’s biggest celebrities: British explorer Ernest Shackleton. Although Shackleton survived the 800 mile, 16-day crossing of the South Atlantic Ocean to South Georgia in nothing but a lifeboat during his rescue mission back in 1916, he died 6 years later on the same island from a heart attack (an anti-climactic ending for the intrepid adventurer). Today – January 5th – was the 95th anniversary of Shackleton’s death day. No doubt the history buffs (including our ship’s captain) were geeking out over the fortuitous timing.
Shackleton’s Grave (left), where explorer Ernest Shackleton was laid to rest exactly 95 years ago today. While his body was en route back to England, his widow decided that he should remain in Antarctica, where he spent so much of his life exploring. The pretty, white picket fence surrounding the graves were installed later to prevent molting elephant seals from scratching themselves on the headstones.
The Whalers Church in Grytviken – erected in 1913 with the best of intentions, this pretty building was soon the most under-utilized place in town. The station manager of Grytviken finally sent the minister back to Norway and used the church for more popular purposes – like storing potatoes and playing movies
We walked to the western end of Grytviken to meet up with the museum’s walking tour of the whaling station. Grytviken was the first whaling station in South Georgia, set up by an Argentinean-backed Norwegian Carl Anton Larsen in 1904. When Larsen first scouted out the location two years before, he told tales of literally hundreds of whales swimming in the protected Cumberland Bay, where Grytviken is located. Today, the curator of the museum told us that no one has seen a whale in the bay for decades. It was pretty depressing to hear the numbers of whales slaughtered in such a short period of time. By the time Grytviken finally closed shop in 1965, a total of 175,250 whales (Blue, Fin, Humpback, Sei and Sperm) had been “processed” – their blubber, meat and bones boiled down to extract oil used for just about everything from cosmetics and candles to fertilizer and tanning products. Igor felt like he was walking through an animal Holocaust – of all the species that were hunted to near extinction, only the Humpback has rebounded enough to be removed from the Endangered Species List.
The whaling industry in South Georia came to an end in 1965, when synthetic alternative to whale oil made the hunting unprofitable. As the first and last whaling station in operation, Grytviken is now home to the South Georgia Museum as well as a large scientific research center (not open to tourists)
We explore the open-air museum, where nature is slowly breaking down the rusted remains of the processing plant and blubber boilers. Of the six original whaling stations, Grytviken is the only one open to visitors, as the rest are deemed unsafe due to asbestos in the buildings (the government of South Georgia went to the expense of removing the asbestos from Grytviken order to maintain the historic site)
The derelict mains of the “Petrel” – a circa 1920s whale-catcher. It was small but fast, which allowed the hunters to effectively hunt down their prey. When they succeeded in killing a whale, instead of returning to the station, they would fill the lungs with air, stick a flag on the carcass and leave it floating in the water to pick up later. The Petrel had the ability to drag up to 14 dead whales at a time.
Part of the motivation for the unchecked exploitation of the whales, was that the whalers wanted to make as much money as they could as quickly as possible, so they wouldn’t have to ever come back to South Georgia. The island is 800miles from the nearest continent – talk about remote! During the summers, the population of Grytviken would swell to about 500 men, who would work 12 hours a day, live in cramped dormitories (if they were lucky, they got the one with an indoor shower), and had NO BOOZE (Larsen wanted everyone to be sharp and ready to work, so he banned alcohol on the station). In the winter, a maintainance staff of about 90 remained – mostly to brush snow off the roofs of the buildings so they didn’t collapse under the weight. Given these conditions, Movie Night was probably the most exciting entertainment around. The men would watch the same 15 films over and over again (especially if there was a pretty girl in one of them…)
Whaling artifacts from the Grytviken Museum. The oil was sold in different grades for different purposes (higher quality for cosmetics and food, lesser quality for fertilizers and industrial use). By the 1960s, the majority of the Norwegian whaling companies agreed that hunting whales in South Georgia was no longer profitable and started to close shop. The Japanese leased the facilities at Grytviken for the final season to hunt whales for meat instead of oil, but (thankfully!) also failed to make enough money to continue the venture.
And just because I don’t want to finish this blog post on a depressing note, check out this random King Penguin who was just chillin’ on the ground next to our return zodiac!
I’m lazy and I don’t feel like getting up.