December 15, 1999

Spectrograph of leopard seal vocalization, showing time on the horizontal axis and amplitude on the vertical axis.

I spent much of the day listening to and editing some of the extraordinary sounds that we had gathered yesterday: leopard seals and icebergs grinding and calving. The whirring, modulated drones of the seals can be heard, along with their higher frequency whistles. At about 1' 25" of the selection, you can here the sound of a fracture and calving in an iceberg. The crackling, static noise is the sound of pack ice and brash ice moving in the sea swell...

Click here to listen to an MP3 sample of leopard seals and icebergs. (Please note that you will need an MPEG Layer 3 (MP3) player to hear the sample. If your computer does not already have one, players are available for purchase, as shareware or freeware over the Internet from a number of sites).

Bob Farrell, Station Manager.

On Wednesday evenings, folks give lectures about Antarctic science and other topics of interest. Ken Doggett, the Laboratory Supervisor, made a presentation about the 1989 wreck of the Argentine vessel, Bahia, which lies off DeLacca Island in Arthur Harbor. We took in slides as well as a home video shot by a passenger. It appears that the captain, ignoring cautions from Palmer Station, decided to take a rather risky route out of the harbor and ran the ship aground: an unfortunate combination of bravado and arrogance. While nobody was injured in the accident, the ship was lost and the impact of fuel spillage on wildlife had devastating effects: both short term in seabird mortality and in the long term, as a nearby cormorant colony has been permanently abandoned.

After the lecture, I had the opportunity to chat with Bob Farrell, the Station Manager, about his responsibilities and the running of Palmer. He is a veteran of South Pole Station with a number of years' experience on the ice and has a low-key management style, a good sense of humour and the capacity to listen to folks.