The start of the journey South: The Falkland Islands

The flights from Heathrow, San Paulo, Santiago and Punto aries ending at Mount Pleasance in the Falklands went rather smoothly, with the journey taking two days. We stayed the night in Santiago, which resulted in an hour and a bit in a taxi into town whilst fearing for our lives due to fairly crazy driving, which was worth it for an amazing steak and roasted sweet potato. The airport check-in started at 5.30am the next morning, so everyone set early alarms. This was unnecessary as we woke to the hotel shaking violently at 4.30am. It was my first earthquake, lasting about half a minute, the epicentre was several hundred miles away, although it measured at 6.8!

Once in the Falklands, we boarded the awaiting bus which took us outside of the military base, and through barren rocky landscapes until we finally made it to Stanley. We had a day and a half here, so walked to Gypsy Cove past several wrecks.

 

Back on the ship, we listened to several safety briefs, and had a muster and lifeboat drill, we organised all the fresh produce (‘freshies’) in the hold, ready to be delivered to the islands. After seeing food, I decided to go into town one last time, and buy some food for the last time in 18 months. We left the harbour at sunset, with everyone standing on the monkey island (above the bridge) watching birds flying past.

 

There were several Gentoo penguins porpoising towards land, making that two penguin species in as many days. That was soon to be broken though. We moved to a different harbour to refuel for a couple of days, so we made the four hour round-trip to Bertha’s Beach, having heard that there is a Gentoo colony at the end. We were greeted by a few hundred penguins calling to each other, with some on eggs and passing pebbles around, with sheep wandering past the colony.

We sat and watched them for a time, until the sun started to disappear. As we were making our way back to the ship, I saw something near the surf. It turned out to be the 3^rd penguin species in as many days, a King. Now I just need to see some seals!

Watching a sleeping king

We returned to the beach the next morning to try and remedy the lack of pinniped sightings, and were not disappointed. The king penguin was still present, as were South-American terns, a Southern sea lion, and about 8 commerson dolphins. We watched the dolphins for half an hour or so as they were surfing the waves and coming into the shallows.

Pre-deployment summary

I've now been employed by BAS for little over a month, and a lot has happened. I've met a lot of people, sipped a lot of tea, and forgotten a lot of names. The second week that I was in Cambridge consisted of attending "conference", a 5 day event that sees all first timers thrown together for a combination of information gathering and team building.

After listening to a lot of talks, we escaped outside to do some practical training on the appropriate action in the case of an oil-spill, and a fire (hopefully not combined!)

Inflating a boom to stop the spread of oil

Tim putting out a fire

The next two days were spent learning first aid, with activities ranging from injecting drugs into an orange, to full-on scenarios with actors and squirting blood. This training was fairly specialized to the environment that we will be living in, dealing with hypothermia, falls down cliffs, and bites, but I've already found uses for it in situations in the UK (thankfully nothing too major). Tim has gone on to add to this knowledge by spending a few days at a hospital in Plymouth being trained by doctors in A&E, dealing with real patients and high-tech simulators. Whilst South we will continue to be trained remotely with nights organised to teach us how to put in IVs and suture wounds.

After our time in Girton, those that hadn't already undergone the fun of being thrown around in a wave pool, went on a sea-survival course. This is mandatory for travelling South on the ships as we are technically crew, and the Southern Ocean is an unforgiving environment. Next stop was Derbyshire, where we spent 3 days getting to know the winterers from other bases whilst doing field skills including rope work, orienteering, blizzard search and rescue, and casualty evacuation.

Our accommodation

Since these intensive courses, we have been spending our time in the office going to various meetings and talks, and drinking a lot of tea as the cafe adheres to Antarctic meal times, with the possibility of breakfast, "smoko" (tea and cakes) in the morning, lunch, followed by another smoko. Last week I went to Birmingham, learning about (and hopefully becoming certified to ship) dangerous goods at sea. Basically, don't mix acid and explosives. It was a lot more interesting than I expected as there is a lot that you don't think about when you hand a box to someone to ship, down to whether the box meets UN standards, or if a plastic container has expired (despite their long-term presence in the environment, they are only certified for 5 years, regardless of whether they were used in that time!).

This is our final week in the office, and to finish up we have been in the lab removing and measuring carapaces of krill, and learning how to identify species of squid based on the morphometrics of their beaks. We have been told throughout the last month that travel plans do often change, and that's been proven as this morning we found out we will (**probably**) be flying from Heathrow on commercial airlines to the Falklands via Chile (and probably several connections), instead of flying with the RAF from Brize Norton to the Falklands via Ascension Island. We will now be leaving on the 5th of November, arrive in the Falklands on the 7th, and then sail on the JCR on the 9th, and won't arrive at Bird Island until approximately the 21st of November as we are hopefully going via Signey on the South Orkneys, and KEP on South Georgia; which I'm excited to see.

As this is likely to be my last blog until I'm having a break from vomiting in the Southern Ocean, or have arrived at BI, I'll provide the best way to contact me:
My BAS email is jamins@bas.ac.uk 
Follow and comment on my blogs (there is a subscribe button on the right which will email you new posts).Or comment and send messages on facebook. I'll be very busy over the austral summer, so don't expect an instant reply, but I'll try to keep up with things, and will be more on top of communication, blogs and uploading photos as the year goes towards winter.
We will only have post twice a year (April and November), so it would be lovely to receive a postcard or letter from friends; anything that isn't a bill would be great really! I'll reply to any post, although it may smell like a penguin colony, which could be great or awful, depending on your view.
The address which will forward on to the base is:

James Robbins
Bird Island Research Station
c/o British Antarctic Survey
Stanley, Falkland Islands,
South Atlantic,
FIQQ 1ZZ

It feels surreal that it's been 6 months since I got the job, and in 3 weeks, I'll be finally on my way to living amongst millions of seals, penguins and albatross!

Bird Island in literature

I have been reading a lot about Bird Island under the pretence of it somehow preparing me for being there. I think the fact that I am excited about living there and want to hoard as many facts and stories about the place as I can to help me put together an image of life there. When I first got the job, I read every blog that I could find from people who have lived there since the days of internet. These included:

http://alastairwilsonphotos.blogspot.co.uk/ - A blog run by the current penguin and petrel biologist who I will be sharing the island with for the summer.
http://raisedbypuffins.blogspot.co.uk/ - run by a previous penguin biologist who is returning as the base commander this summer.
http://cianluckthesealofapproval.blogspot.co.uk/ - run by a previous seal biologist.
http://arctocephalus.blogspot.co.uk/ -  an older blog by a seal biologist who was on the island for 2.5 years instead of my 1.5. Although elements of the base have changed slightly, the work done on the island is very much the same.

BAS also update their official bird island blog almost monthly (https://www.bas.ac.uk/media/latest-blogs/) and an hourly webcam (https://www.bas.ac.uk/data/our-data/images/webcams/bird-island-webcam/).

To contrast all of this "high-tech" information gathering, I bought a book written by an American ornithologist who spent some time on Bird Island in the 70's back when the modern comforts of the base didn't exist and the science program was starting out. It's very interesting, and of course the wildlife is still the same, just with different population sizes. For anyone who may be reading this in the future about to head down to Bird Island, I would recommend finding a copy of "Bird Island in Antarctic waters" by David Parmelee.

I was also given "Empire Antarctica: Ice, Silence & Emperor Penguins" by Gavin Francis for my birthday. It is written by the doctor who spent a year at Halley, the base on the Brunt Ice Shelf. To go South, he joins the ship in the UK, but his section from the Falklands to Bird Island is the same as I will be undertaking. We will (hopefully) fly from Brize Norton to Ascension Island, re-fuel and then head down to the Falkland Islands. The flight time is approximately 23 hours. After this, there is normally a few days to explore the surrounding area and visit a few penguin colonies (some nest on minefields left over from the war, but they aren't heavy enough to set off the explosives). From here, the current ship itinerary shows an 11 day journey to Bird Island, going via Signy (further south in the South Orkneys) and then King Edward Point on mainland South Georgia. Anyway, I digress, here is an excerpt from Empire Antarctica documenting the writers first experience of Bird Island as he approached in a cargo tender.

"As we neared the island, fur seals appeared around the prow of the vessel, pirouetting through the spume. They led us on to the beaches where they breed in their thousands. The sun was rising over the cordillera of South Georgia, alpine summits sunk in an iron sea. Bird Island is a stumpy rock splintered from its western cape. A procession of stately icebergs were grounded on the shallow seabed between them, lined up like stanchions for a bridge across the strait. 

The Shackleton lay at anchor beneath the grey hulk of the island. The base itself was hidden in the fog. I jumped into the tender with a bag of medical supplies and the first mate steered us into the mist. Kelp mats threatened to tangle our propeller, and we had to reverse a few times to find a way through. We did not need to use our eyes, it was enough to follow the clamorous din of the seals on the beach. Paying attention to our ears and noses we moved between the banks of mist. Around the boat the water was a soup of kelp gulls, giant petrels and macaroni penguins. It was like crossing the Styx; the corpse of something dead floated past, a giant petrel's head buried deep in its flank. Its bat-like wings were stained with blood, flailing for balance as it tore into the carcass. An isolated landing stage appeared - I couldn't see the base at the other end of it. The smells were of matted fur, fetid breath, rotting meat, faeces, urine, blood. There was a ceaseless yelping and barking, a low pitiful moaning. We tied up at the pier and I began to make out individual seals on the beach ahead. The rumbles coming from the throats of even the small females were startling. I saw that each had its pup, a mewling bundle of greasy fur with wide, obsidian eyes. 

We were met on the pier by two biologists who handed us each a long pole. At the beach they led us in a walk up the riverbed - it was the least claimed part of the shoreline - but even there we quickly found a use for the poles. 'Aim for the noses,' we were told, 'they're most sensitive there.' The ground was littered with bones and fallen canines sharp as meathooks. Fur-seal saliva contains special enzymes to prevent wounds from healing. Wielding my stick I was reminded that Homo sapiens can be prey species too." 

Bearing in mind that the writer is a doctor and not someone used to having large animals running around, or their associated smell, I'm very much looking forward to such a situation! Tomorrow I start work in the office in Cambridge, learning a lot more about my role and what daily life will be like for the next 18 months.

Preparing for going south

Previous positions I have taken on often require a small amount of preparation, be it finding accommodation, booking flights and trains, packing a bag, reading up on the area and study species or simply buying a waterproof jacket. The preparation for going south to Bird Island is a bit more involved. There is a long list of things to organize before making the trip and starting employment, but thankfully it is all interesting, and mostly exciting. I could write for several hours the intricacies of everything that I've done over the last few months, but instead I'll adopt a simple list.

• Vaccinations - Travelling from 54 N to 54 S means entering areas of "low risk" for several diseases, which means getting jabbed with several needles.
• Dental checks - There is no dentist or doctor on Bird Island, and dental problems are one of the most common reasons for ending a tour early. As a result of my check I had two wisdom teeth extracted. It's a good thing I'm excited about this job.
• Purchases - Being away from shops for 18 months means you need to foresee that you may want a new hoody, or that all your socks are likely to fall apart from running after seals all day. In addition to replacement clothes I've also bought (almost literally) a truck-load of contact lenses and deodorant to (hopefully) last 18 months. Thankfully BAS provides toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo and soap, otherwise my allocated personal box (which sails from the UK in September, and is reunited with me in November) would be filled with toiletries. I've also bought a GoPro to take some nice footage of penguins and seals trying to kill me. The internet isn't exactly fast though, so these videos will only appear once I'm back in the UK, or if someone is kind enough to upload them once receiving them on a DVD in the post (which isn't frequent either).
•  Packing - Next I needed to get the aforementioned possessions down to the Cambridge office and stores and into a box. This went rather smoothly, although I underestimated the size of the box, and therefore didn't even use the additional personal kitbag. I just hope I don't regret that in a year when all my t-shirts have been accidentally dyed pink. 
• Cambridge logistics - Whilst in the area I took the opportunity to find a house to rent for my time based at the office. Thankfully the first place was suitable as there aren't many places that will accept a tenant for 2 months!
• Spending time with people - I've been doing my best to see friends and family as much as possible over the last few months. I'm living at home with my parents in Edinburgh until moving to Cambridge in September, and I've spent time camping with housemates from my undergrad, hiked part of the west highland way with my girlfriend, and watched her graduate. I'm trying to make as many memories and photo opportunities in a small amount of time as possible so I have plenty to look back at whilst only seeing 3 other people for 6 months. I've also read on blogs from previous winterers that photos of trees and the sun isn't a bad idea.
• Training - Starts with a 3 day course in just over a week. I'm travelling to Aberdeen to learn about the satellite communications that BAS use on their bases. I'll be the only winterer learning how it all works, so I guess if the up-link goes down and we lose internet and communications then I won't be very popular. I don't know too much about the course as of yet, but I'm looking forward to learning something a bit different. The winter comms manager from Rothera is joining me, so I feel like I'll have a bit of catching up to do.

After this I'll have a few weeks back home with friends and family, a few more things to organize and then I'll be moving to Cambridge for 2 months. This time will be taken up predominantly by going through various training, from advanced first aid and ropes skills to oil spill prevention. I'm sure that I'll make time to post an update on these occurrences too, but until then, did I mention I was excited?

Rounding up the last adventure, and starting a new one

I have now been off the farallones and in society for a month, and it has gone quickly. I explored the California Academy of Sciences, flew back to Edinburgh to recover from jet lag, and then flew to Malta for a three day conference (European Cetacean Society) where I presented a poster on the results of my MSc thesis. Since then I have been applying for jobs, visiting friends and family, and been to an interview (more on that later!). Firstly, here is a quick round-up of the final month on the farallones.

Possibly the most important day was a relatively quiet one at first. As the elephant seal colony had almost emptied, we were doing odd jobs to pass the time, and investing more energy into side projects. I was wandering the island looking for song birds, and nearly falling asleep in the afternoon heat under a tree waiting for sooty fox sparrows to show their leg rings. Others were working in the carp shop to make "corn holes" (a game where you throw beanbags into a hole in a wooden stand - it's more fun that it first sounds). I decided to take a break and see what Brian (from US Fish and Wildlife Services) was doing. He was heading up the side of lighthouse hill to pull invasive spinach plants, so I followed him, scrambling up the crumbling granite peak. Once at the top, Vanessa was doing a cetacean watch, and we all looked as hundreds of Californian sea lions swam fast back to the island. So fast that it created a line of white-water. We wondered why they were moving so fast until I saw a giant fin cut through the water. Orca. We sprinted down the hill (no small feat as I fall down it whilst walking very carefully) and prepped the boat, with Brian staying on land after launching us. We followed the Orca at a safe and respectful distance for awhile, off to the south-east and then back towards the island. There was a male, female, juvenile and calf (we think). The male came straight towards our small SAFE boat, and photos of the dorsal fin really don't do it justice. It's massive when you are on the surface of the water. It was the best wildlife experience I have had so far, and we were all grinning madly for days.

Photos taken by me on the boat

Photo taken from the island by Brian White

We also had the opportunity to explore the caves on the island, some of which are expansive and are rather difficult to climb down into (and one of which I fell into...), one has an endemic camel cricket species lining the walls and a floor with ankle deep guano, and one that requires crawling through that opens up to reveal walls with some names of early 1900s lighthouse keepers carved in to the rock.

In one of the larger caves (photo by Meumeu Fromant)

The rest of our time was spent sneaking around the island to avoid disturbing the rising numbers of Californian sea lions in poor body condition hauled out high, checking on the remaining elephant seals with ninja-like prowess, carrying out pre-breeding season checks on cassin auklet boxes, band (ring) resights on common murres, and finishing up the season with inventories and data proofing. Below are some photos to round up the season (photos by myself, Vanessa Delnavez, and Amanda Hooper)

A very fat super weaner (a pup who suckled from two cows, gaining more weight than normal)

An arboreal salamander being handled during a survey

The view west from lighthouse hill trail

Myself, Amanda and Ryan on a landing day

Me and meumeu stamping cows and pups with dye to help identify them

More stamping action

The full winter crew

Climbing up to the murre blind to re-sight rings

Posing in front of a stormy sea

Relaxing and being socially anti-social

During a landing day at the always interesting north landing



Having a Christmas-time beer in the colony to celebrate our first pup being born

Ready to zip-line back from west end

Travelling over crashing waves

I've had an amazing time on the farallones and will keep many amazing memories for a very long time. Thank you to the whole team from Point Blue Conservation Science and the visitors from US Fish and Wildlife Services and NOAA for making it such a great season. This chapter may be over, but the next one is equally exciting. I have just accepted a job with British Antarctic Survey as the Zoological Field Assistant for seals on Bird Island. I'll be spending 18 months predominantly studying Antarctic fur seals and leopard seals, although I will also assist other biologists working on penguins, petrels and albatross. I can't wait to start this journey, although there is a lot of prep work ahead, from learning wilderness first aid and dentistry to deciding what music and books to enjoy for 18 months.
To see some photos taken by a previous seal biologist, follow this link. There is also a facebook page under the same name: http://shotsfromadarklight.com/?page_id=18