November 8, 2025 After traveling through sea ice overnight, we woke up in the Prince Gustav Channel surrounded by beautiful mountain and glacier views. We traveled between the North Antarctic Peninsula and James Ross Island to stop in Sjögren Inlet to land the boat in fast ice. Between 1996 and 2014, the Sjögren Glacier retreated 62km (39mi) and continues to do so. Due to the glacier retreat, we were able to land in the inlet and walk up to two of the remaining glacier faces for measurements with our glaciologist colleague, Caroline. It was a very chilly and windy walk with a temperature of -5°C (23°F) and 40 knot winds. The wind had blown most of the snow off the surface of the ice, so we used crampons to safely traverse the 1m thick fast ice. It wasn’t until we got back on the vessel that I checked the informational screens in the lobby that informed us that the inlet we had walked over was 368m (~1200ft) deep! Likely due to the high winds, we didn’t see many birds, only a few snow petrels, on our walking survey but we came across one crabeater seal that appeared rather thin and was covered in snow from the wind.
Earlier that morning while we were transiting the channel, we hosted a “Scientists Corner” with Caroline in the Observatory Lounge. This was intended to be a casual guest interaction and an opportunity for passengers to ask us about our project and what we have done so far. We had 6 guests from Australia, New Zealand, France, and Austria join us and we chatted about everything from our projects to science communication and current events. It was a nice time to meet new passengers we hadn’t interacted with yet. That evening we also joined the passengers and crews on the ice for a group photo in the shape of an “A” for “Antarctica”. While the ship transited back north toward the Antarctic Sound, all three of us scientists concluded the evening with dinner with a fellow American guest who had stopped to chat with us a few times. Our time in the Weddell Sea was officially coming to a close and we were excited to see what we would see and hear in the last couple of days on our expedition.
