Everyday at sea there was the opportunity to see the wonders of nature. We would be notified via the loud speaker that there was another photographic emergency! The good thing is that you never missed a chance to see something amazing. The bad thing was that you could not turn off the PA in your room, so you often missed a planned nap. This Weddell seal had been spotted on an ice floe and soon after there would be a sighting of whales. In this case, it was a pod of about ten Killer whales with a young pup of about three weeks. How they work is to surround and upset the ice floe causing the seal to return to the sea, thus providing their dinner. On this day, the whales became more interested in our ship, and so we saved the life of this particular seal- that day. The greatest sighting of the voyage, however, was the sighting of one, lone, Emperor penguin. This is rare to see as they live much farther south and in a colder climate. Ships can rarely travel south enough to see them. This photo shows the size of the Emperor in terms of scale next to the Adelies.
