Life Outside of Science
The scientists at Cape Shirreff bring all the equipment, gear, and provisions they need for the entire field season at camp opening. After that, they are on their own until they close camp several months later. Provisions include some fresh fruit, vegetables, and perishable treats, but mostly comprise non-perishable items that can last at least 5 months. Because the camp is so remote and isolated and days can be monotonous, food often provides the morale boost that tired scientists need at the end of a long, cold day.
Meal preparation at Cape Shirreff is on a rotating schedule. Those who have spent multiple seasons there know they’re lucky when someone among them is gifted in creating inspired dishes using canned or dry ingredients.
“I remember once cooking so many hand-made gnocchi with meat sauce,” said veterinarian and field biologist Nicola Pussini. “We ate gnocchi for a week.”
Meals become especially important during holidays that might be cause for loneliness or homesickness. Many of the scientists who have done tours at Cape Shirreff remember holidays as some of their best times at the camp.
“I remember Thanksgiving and smoking the turkey and a salmon in the smoker, gathering to eat at 5 p.m. and being catatonic by 8 p.m. We'd pull down the projector screen, put the window covers on and watch silly cartoon movies until we were sleepy enough to go to bed,” said field biologist Naira de Gracia.
“Christmas at Cape Shirreff was a special time. The smoker got some action, the interior Christmas lighting found its purpose and the crew shared gifts. These were not expensive or extravagant gifts, but they were so thoughtful and so personal that they meant everything,” said NOAA Corps Officer Andy Reynaga.
“From decorating the tree with our assorted knick-knacks that we collected over the years to celebrating with our fellow Chilean researchers, Christmas was always such a fun time at camp. Once we even took the tree outside to open presents and have freshly baked cinnamon rolls on the deck on Christmas morning,” said NOAA Research Biologist Sam Woodman.
Despite spending months at a time in such close quarters, scientists at Cape Shirreff enjoy their down time together. Cape Shirreff has an email system, but the internet service doesn’t support web browsing. Cellular phones also don’t work at the camp. Without the distraction of personal devices and social media, binge-watching movies or TV shows is a favorite pastime.
“We had the honor of watching what was voted the worst horror movie of all time shown at Cape Shirreff,” said NOAA Scientist Wayne Perryman. “It was a Norwegian horror flick called ‘Dead Snow.’ Surprisingly, everyone sat through the entire movie, and actually enjoyed most of it, but a motion picture that includes chain saws used to dismember zombies, and unlimited gratuitous violence, just deserves a special rating.”
“Sometimes we just need a midday pick-me-up. For several weeks one year—actually, most of the field season—several of us would watch the So Shiny/Tamatoa scene from the movie Moana most days around lunchtime. The field camp walls would echo with our out-of-tune singing, and we would hum our way through the rest of our day,” said Woodman.
New Days, New Ways
Over the last 28 years, science at Cape Shirreff has evolved in response to changing environmental conditions, stagnant budgets, and rising costs. Cape Shirreff used to open each year in mid-November and close in mid-March, capturing the entire reproductive cycles of the penguins and fur seals that return to Livingston Island each year to raise their young and to mate. Since 2019, Cape Shirreff has opened several weeks later and closed several weeks earlier, shrinking the window scientists have to monitor breeding success and estimate population sizes. With less time each year and new science questions to address, the program has embraced new technologies that maximize data collection over shorter periods.
To observe key events in annual reproductive cycles before the camp opens—penguin nest-building and egg-laying, for example—scientists have installed a network of rugged, outdoor trail cameras at penguin and fur seal breeding sites. These cameras take pictures at programmed intervals while the camp is unoccupied. When scientists return in spring, they change the batteries and retrieve the memory cards with thousands of images of predators returning to Cape Shirreff after a winter away.
Perhaps the most exciting advancement at Cape Shirreff has been the Unoccupied Aerial Systems program. In 2012, after 6 months of technical and practical training, Krause and Hinke were certified as the first civilian NOAA UAS pilots. Since 2012, scientists at Cape Shirreff have used small hexacopters with high-resolution cameras to photograph penguin colonies and fur seal breeding beaches from the air. UAS can cover large areas, and even areas inaccessible on foot. Scientists use these images to monitor changes in populations without hiking around and disturbing the animals.
Scientists can even use aerial images of larger animals, such as leopard seals, to estimate their size and mass. Leopard seals used to be rare visitors at Cape Shirreff, but their numbers have increased over the last several years as their preferred ice habitat melts away. With dwindling sea ice and less access to Antarctic krill, they have resorted to feeding on fur seal pups. More than half the pups born at Cape Shirreff each year are eaten by leopard seals, causing a massive decline in fur seal numbers at the South Shetland Islands.
A New Era
The new field camp at Cape Shirreff means that shorter field seasons will still be productive, without the distraction of repairing damage and scrubbing mold each year. Although some chores will always be a part of daily life at Cape Shirreff—taking shifts emptying the “toilet bucket” in the latrine, for example—others will fade into memories the scientists look back on and laugh about in the years to come. While they may not remember all of the maintenance tasks fondly, those who spent the most time there will always remember the original camp as both imperfect and awesome at the same time.
“In terms of comfort, ease, safety, and mental and physical health, the new camp will be huge. It will be nice when I don’t wake up and look up and see a big chunk of black mold and think, ‘Oh, that’s going into my lungs,’” said Krause. “But at the same time, I don’t even know if I can be there for the demolition of the old camp. I can’t be the first person to knock down a wall or unscrew a screw. I will help, but it won’t be easy. There are parts of the camp, including things I built with my own two hands, 17 or 18 years ago, that I’m not going to be able to…yeah. Honestly, it hasn’t set in. I’m going to need some moments, for sure.”
