Picto Diary - 13 January 2023 (Part 2) Paradise Bay

Above: Leopard Seal. Paradise Bay. Antarctica. 13 January 2023.

Paradise Harbor, also known as Paradise Bay, is a wide embayment behind Lemaire and Bryde Islands in Antarctica, indenting the west coast of Graham Land between Duthiers and Leniz Points. The name was first applied by whalers operating in the vicinity and was in use by 1920.

The pictured leopard seal was sighted on a zodiac cruise. Typically, each day, expedition goers do an onshore expedition and a zodiac cruise, one in the AM and the other in the PM. Expedition goers are assigned color codes which denote the time of each expedition. Eight zodiacs are used to accomplish the expeditions. Each outing lasts one hour and a half.

The leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), also referred to as the sea leopard, is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic (after the southern elephant seal). Its only natural predator is the orca. It feeds on a wide range of prey including cephalopods, other pinnipeds, krill, fish, and birds, particularly penguins. It is the only species in the genus Hydrurga. Its closest relatives are the Ross seal, the crabeater seal and the Weddell seal, which together are known as the tribe of Lobodontini seals. The name hydrurga means "water worker" and leptonyx is the Greek for "thin-clawed".

Our zodiac operator/naturalist informed us that the pictured leopard seal encounter was a rare sighting.

Above: Cormorant wrestles prey. Paradise Bay. Antarctica. 13 January 2023.

Our female Russian naturalist/zodiac operator stopped the zodiac, retrieved her camera and began taking images of this unique "law of the jungle" happening. While taking the photographs, the woman's attention was not on the zodiac or its ten passengers. I didn't say anything, but I felt that considering her charge to look after us helpless geezers in this inherently risky situation she dropped the ball.

There have been two reported zodiac incidents this cruise season in Antarctica which have resulted in death.

Three weeks ago, on a Viking Antarctica cruise, a male senior citizen broke a leg, falling while exiting a zodiac. The injury was severe enough that the ship's captain decided to truncate the cruise and return immediately to Ushuaia. Seas were rough on the ship's return across the Drake Passage and a freak wave, coming from starboard, knocked out three cabin windows. One woman was killed.

Two people died during a shore excursion on a Quark Expeditions cruise after a zodiac boat capsized. According to a statement from Quark, the accident occurred during a zodiac excursion from the ship World Explorer, chartered by the company, near Cape Lookout, Elephant Island in the Antarctic on 15 November 2022.

Above: Bishop 'n Espresso. Paradise Bay zodiac excursion. Antarctica. 13 January 2023.

My grumpy look in the above image may have something to do with the fact that our zodiac operator/naturalist again failed in her duties. She maneuvered the zodiac into a small, placid inlet very near a glacial cliff edge (see image). She broke out a bottle of champaign and poured a glass for each of the ten zodiac expedition goers. It was a nice thought. Buit, my first reaction was that we were too close to the ice cliff. Again, as was the case when her photographic attention was directed at the cormorant which was securing is prey, I didn't say anything. At about fifty yards away from the ice cliff we were not in danger of being hit by calving ice, but a wave resulting from a calving could have upended our zodiac. Lo and behold, two or three minutes into our Antarctic champaign celebration, the expedition leader's zodiac raced up to us. The zodiac expedition leader told our zodiac operator to move out another hundred yards. I'm just sayin'. In the early aughts I was organizer of some motorcycle events in remote areas of the western United States. We had to chopper out one crash victim. I have experience in organizing events having more than ordinary levels of risk. Likely today's incidents were one off. By and large, the zodiac operations of L'Austral are adeptly managed. I was glad to see the rapid, back up, supervisory attention given to our situation.

Above: Reflections. Paradise Bay. Antarctica, 13 January 2023.