Okay, all you penguin fanatics. Our friends at the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research station in Antarctica have found a way for us to spy on their neighbors—Adélie penguins! They've set up a webcam that brings LIVE looks at the rookery on Torgersen Island. You may recall from Jo's penguin post that the island is home to a colony of Adélie penguins numbering approximately 2,500.

Screen captures of the actual webcam!

You can visit and monitor Adélie rookery with a first hand view here (look for the Torgersen Island tab below the picture of Palmer Station). You may see an Adélie parent caring for chicks while its partner takes to the Ross Sea to feed on krill. You may see a penguin preening. And look out for those fluffy chicks! While Torgersen Island is primarily home to Adélies, other penguins may sometimes be seen on screen, including gentoo and chinstrap penguins (check out Jo's pictures of the different species here). We recently hosted a Google+ Hangout with the researchers on Palmer, too. Shawn had some really interesting things to share about the penguins. Check it out!

This camera is seasonal and operates primarily from October to February, which is the Adélie breeding season. Since the camera is solar-powered it sometimes experiences brief outages due to inclement weather.

Aquarium senior educator Jo Blasi is on expedition to Antarctica to help study the impact of climate change in these areas and changes in the marine ecosystem. She will be live blogging frequently about the expedition, research technologies and marine life encountered during the trip.



All of Jo's entries are cross posted on the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station site here. Track her progress on the R/V Gould, and learn more about the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station.

Adélie penguin

Chinstrap penguin

Gentoo penguins

Adélie penguin carrying a rock to help build its nest

Adélie adult with two chicks

Out for a swim—porpoising Adélie penguin

Staring contest between a gentoo penguin and elephant seal. The seal won.

Happy!

This isn't Jo's first encounter with penguins. She rescued endangered African penguins in South Africa in 2011. If you still can't get enough penguins, check out Brian Skerry's penguin images from his trip to Antarctica in 2010.

All of Jo's entries are cross posted on the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station site here. Track her progress on the R/V Gould, and learn more about the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station.

Aquarium senior educator Jo Blasi is on expedition to Antarctica to study the impact of climate change in these areas and changes in the marine ecosystem. She will be live blogging frequently about the expedition, research technologies and marine life encountered during the trip.
No more than a half mile from Palmer Station is Torgersen Island, a small rocky outcrop near the entrance to Arthur Harbor. The island was named back around 1954–1955 by first mate Torstein Torgersen (b. 1918) during a charting expedition aboard the Norwegian sailing vessel Norsel.

Ride alongside Jo as she jumps on a zodiac and heads over to the island for the very first time!



Back in the mid-1970′s Torgersen Island was home to roughly 9,000 breeding pairs of Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae). The island was an absolute mass of life!  Since then, climate change has decreased the breeding pairs by 81 percent to 2,500.

Adélie penguin

Jo got to witness these animals first hand.



See more pictures of Adélie penguins by Aquarium Explorer-in-Residence Brian Skerry here. And brush up on your penguin species with our handy penguin species guide.

All of Jo's entries will be cross posted on the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station site here. Track her progress on the R/V Gould, and learn more about the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research Station.

Brian Skerry, Antarctica Expedition

Our next destination after Deception Island was the Weddell Sea. We headed south along the eastern side of the peninsula where the air and water turned even colder and icebergs became more plentiful. I stood on the bow of the ship in awe watching massive tabular bergs drifting past us like city buildings painted in hues of blue and white. These waters were quite unlike any I have seen before. In the thirty plus years I've explored the world's oceans I have been privileged to cover a fair bit of territory, including arctic locations and have seen many ice covered seas. But here the scale was grander, more spectacular with gigantic icebergs up close and ice covered mountains as the backdrop.


Tabular icebergs (Photo:Brian Skerry)

It was in the Weddell Sea that Ernest Shackleton became trapped in ice aboard Endurance, eventually abandoning ship, watching her become crushed by ice and sink into the inky black ocean. The epic tale that ensued remains one of the greatest survival stories in human history, and standing here today I had an even greater appreciation and respect for all that he and his crew accomplished. I can only imagine what they would think of us here now, cruising the same seas aboard a ship with amenities ranging from a coffee bistro and sauna to satellite telephones. I am convinced that people were just built tougher in Shackleton's day.


Explorer in ice (Photo: Brian Skerry)

In the afternoon, the captain navigated the ship towards huge stretches of fast ice. This term refers to ice that has adhered itself or has been made fast to the shoreline. This ice can be extremely thick and we searched for a place where we could make a landing. Without a great deal of searching, the bridge crew located a place that looked perfect and they piloted the Explorer directly into the ice. The Explorer is an ice-class ship, meaning that her hull is reinforced for such conditions. We are not an icebreaker, but can push through even heavy ice conditions. Our bow sliced into the fast ice and we slowly came to a stop. The side gates were opened and the Zodiacs were launched for a very short ride to the ice off to the side.


Crabeater seals (Photo: Brian Skerry)


Adelie penguin (Photo: Brian Skerry)

I joined the crew for the first landing and plodded through the ice and snow around to the front of the ship stopping to photograph this unique sight. On the ship's port side a pair of Crabeater seals were resting on the ice. From a distance of about 15 feet, I crouched down and began photographing them. About the time I decided that I had more than enough frames of sleeping seals, I spied a single Adelie penguin sliding along on its belly in our direction. Using its feet and wings it swam along the ice surface, making very good speed. As it got closer, the penguin rose to its feet and waddled even closer. Clearly he (or she) was curious about us. The little Adelie walked around the seals and around us for a few minutes, then flopped back down onto its belly and cruised off. A wonderful little chance encounter, in the middle of a frozen Weddell Sea.

- Brian