Views of Gold Harbour from the ship.
The penguins we didn't get to meet.
The rough and wet ride back.
More and more icebergs.
The three from room 211.
A raft of penguins.
Admiring the view in the lovely sunshine.
Sunday, November 3rd.
Gold Harbour, South Georgia
There were snow flurries in the air
this morning. We arrived at Gold Harbour on the southeast side of South Georgia
about 6:30. We were called to the mudroom after breakfast and got kitted up.
Our group was the third out and we boarded the Zodiac. The ride over started
out quite choppy and got rougher as we went. When we started to round a point
to enter the harbour, Bismarck, our driver told us he just got a message that
everyone was to return to the ship as the conditions were rapidly worsening.
Ironically, I had been chastising myself for not going out on deck to take
photos of the beautiful scenery on this our first truly sunny, blue skied day.
Now that was to be how we spent our time here. We got splashed a lot coming
back but luckily did not get wet because of our gear.
We spent the morning on the various
decks enjoying the stunning views and bright sunshine and blue skies. We were
called into a meeting where Jonathan and the captain shared with us their new
plans for the afternoon. There is a huge storm bearing down on us and instead
of spending the afternoon cruising to and around the island to the fijord on
the other side, we are leaving and heading southeast to try to out run the
worst of the storm. Then we were directed back to the outside decks to watch as
we pulled up anchor and set off. This is an incredibly beautiful shore line.
During lunch Jonathan was making an
announcement about the rising seas and being extra careful about walking about
and keeping one hand holding onto the railing or something, and right on cue
there was a crash and one of the women had pitched over and landed on the floor
in a heap with her lunch on a plate. Luckily, she was fine, just embarrassed.
Then Scobie made a presentation on the
history of whaling. He is a fairly shy man but incredibly passionate about this
area of the world and its history. He talked for about 45 minutes with no
notes, and spoke clearly and succinctly about the history, rattling off dates,
statistics and names. I have included the highlights at the bottom of the post
for those who are interested.
For the rest of the afternoon we
hung out in the lounge and talked to other people. During the daily review,
John said that they had answered all the questions in the question box, but I
pointed out that I had put one in there a week ago and they had told me they
would address it later. So, Bismarck answered my questions: 1) where does our
water come from 2) where does the waste food go and 3) where does the human
waste go?
The ship is equipped with a
desalination machine and the water is taken from the sea, which explains the
slightly odd taste and also explains why we have not run out of water for
showers and such. I thought perhaps that the leftover food was feed to the
large ship staff, who are mostly Philipino, but apparently, they have their own
cook who prepares their type of food. So, they have a macerator that grinds it
all up into a liquid and it is ejected. The same thing goes for the human
waste, it is ground up and expressed. Interestingly they are not allowed to do
that anywhere south of the 60 degree of latitude and have to hold it until we
sail north again. I know GAdventures is a very environmentally minded travel
company and I am sure they are following all of the international regulations
about sailing and waste management in the oceans, but it does make you think
about all of the ships in the world doing the same thing. Are we mucking up the
oceans or does it matter if they are all polluted by micro plastic already?
Maybe that is another question to ask.
After dinner Jonathan gave an amazing
lecture on the ‘Whale Shark Project of the Galapagos’ which he is involved in.
Their research came to the attention of the BBC and they were invited to
participate in Blue Planet II, which they did. They are trying to learning more
about the massive fish, where it breeds, how it breeds and where its migration
routes are. It is incredible that it is the largest fish and we know so little
about it. As usual we need to find out quickly because some nations are
slaughtering it for food.
The seas have been getting rougher
since we left South Georgia and the storm is kicking up. All of the portals on
deck 2 (our deck) were bolted shut with a metal cover because big waves could
break the glass portal. I told the guys that wouldn’t be too bad as they would
drown before me as I am on the top bunk! We were told to put our wedges in
under the side of our bunks to prevent us being tossed out and clear our tables
and to put anything breakable away or on the floor. The waves are predicted to
hit 5 metres overnight! We were assured that this ship can handle that and much
more and that there was nothing to worry about, but for sure some people will
be ill. Bruce and I are okay, but John is a bit ‘fragile’, his word. Should be
interesting.
Here are some of the highlights of
Scobie’s whale talk:
In the Arctic:
The Basques were the first whalers.
The British and the Dutch were next
in the 17th century.
American were next, followed by the
Scottish and the Norwegians.
Stocks depleted by 19th
century.
Simple methods, row boat with light
harpoon.
The whale would tow them around until
it exhausted itself.
They could only take floaters like right
whales and humpbacks.
‘Finners’ would sink and they
didn’t want to be attached to a sinking whale.
They developed the air lance where
they could fill the whale with air to make it float.
This allowed them to take all
species.
1892 two expeditions came to
Antarctica – Norwegians and Scots.
Carl Larssen from Norway talked to
three Argentinian businessmen who funded the beginning of the southern whaling.
Three ships and sixty whalers and
set up at Grytvikin on South Georgia.
Sealers had been there before and
almost eliminated the fur seals for their fur and blubber.
Lasted for 60 years with three
other whaling stations nearby.
Boom time during the first world
war – the oil was needed for heating, lighting, and food.
After the war, costs went up, taxes
went up, production went down.
Norwegian whalers went on strike
for better pay and better conditions and have all non-Norwegians expelled from
the area. Then two things changed the industry:
One – they had bigger ships that
could hunt into the pack ice.
Two – new ship, the Lansing was the
first factory ship and had a slipway that allowed them to haul the whales
onboard, instead of to land, for processing.
Supply vessels were organized to
bring whatever it needed.
Open water whaling:
In the 30’s there were a total of
41 factory ships and 232 whaler catchers.
Wholesale slaughter, 3.6 million
barrels of oil, too much supply so the industry needed regulation because it
was unsustainable.
Geneva convention thrash out new
regulations.
1932 ratified by Norway and 1934 by
Britain.
Needed to have a fair quota system
and not be wasteful.
Needed to use the whole whale and
take all the oil instead of just the oil rich sections.
But this still did not save the whale
stocks.
1936 Japan and Germany started up
demanding their quota as well.
46000 taken in one year, most of
any year.
All the of the whaling ships were
called up for the Second World War and most were lost during it.
New faster ships were built that
could out run the whale instead of just following it.
Then the Russians came in and
demanded their share.
‘Only’14000 blue whaler units were
allowed total for all countries. If that total was reached then all the whalers
had to stop and leave, but Russians falsified their records by saying they
caught more to drive everyone out and they stayed by themselves and whaled
illegally.
They hunted right up to 1970’s, no
one knew until one of their ships pulled into Grytviken and it could be seen
that they were still actively hunting – Scobie saw them and the men at Grytviken
were trading chocolate bars for sperm whale teeth.
Stations closed by the mid 1960’s,
whale stocks had collapsed.
1904-1978 over 1.4 million whales
taken.
Money and egos ran supreme and
stupidity reigned (Scobie wrote that).
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