4 November, 2025 Overnight we crossed the Bransfield Strait and our morning was spent transiting the Antarctic Sound which gave us a great opportunity to get in several transect surveys from the bridge. During our first survey from 8:00-9:00am we saw new birds, Wilson’s storm petrels and Adélie penguins, and by the end of the survey we were in our first ice floe. Interestingly, we noticed there weren’t many birds surveyed while transiting through ice floes, other than penguins. By 10:00am we were out of the Sound and on our way to Snow Hill Island, where we hoped to find emperor penguins making the trek to the ice edge to forage now that their chicks have hatched. We did two more transect surveys before our afternoon science presentation to guests in English. During our last survey, right before we had to hurry off to our presentation, we saw an ice floe with four or five emperor penguins about 300m away. Our first sighting of emperors on this trip! By the time we concluded our presentation we were nearing our ice landing location between James Ross Island and Snow Hill Island.
Once we were landed, they prepared the helicopter to fly ahead and scout the penguin colony location and size. The deployment of the helicopter gathered a large crowd of excited onlooking passengers at the bridge as we wrapped up a transect. There was a crabeater seal on the ice about 300-400m from where the ship entered the fast ice. We watched it diligently to see if and how it would react to our arrival and to our surprise it could not have been less interested. When the zodiac went ahead to guide the landing and when the helicopter blades started up, it glanced our direction but quickly rested its head again. Even as the boat entered the ice and carefully wedged itself into position for the evening, the seal did not so much as budge. Expedition guides also went out on the ice to assess the thickness of ice for guest expedition safety. We remained onboard the rest of the afternoon and evening with no outings scheduled. From the vessel we could see some emperor penguins and crabeater seals in the distance! The whole ship was buzzing with excitement and anticipation of seeing the penguins and seals. The animals, on the other hand, did not seem remotely interested in our arrival. We’re looking forward to time out on the ice and in the zodiac for some glacier measurements and hydrophone dips.
