Cape Shirreff Situation Reports 2022/2023

U.S. AMLR Program 2022/2023 Cape Shirreff Field Team:

• Dr. Douglas Krause, Camp Leader and Head of Pinniped Studies
• Dr. Jefferson Hinke, Camp Leader and Head of Seabird Studies
• Samuel Woodman, Research Biologist
• Lieutenant David Wang, NOAA Corps Officer
• Victoria Hermanson, Biological Science Technician
• Sergio Morales, Biological Science Technician
• Louise Giuseffi, Biological Science Technician

Situation Report 1: Arrival

Camp Opening

The 2022/23 Cape Shirreff field season will have two primary objectives: 1) to continue the decades-long population and behavioral monitoring of krill-dependent seabirds and pinnipeds in order to inform Antarctic fisheries management; and 2) to begin the initial on-site phase of the Cape Shirreff field camp replacement. These objectives will entail the largest and most intricate land-based Antarctic logistical project in NOAA Antarctic history. Read about the Cape Shirreff rebuild project here.

The Cape Shirreff opening crew comes from two superstar groups: 1) NOAA’s U.S. AMLR Program (listed above), and 2) Bespoke Project Solutions (the general contractor responsible for the Cape Shirreff rebuild): Brandon “Shaggy” Neahusan, Samantha Strang, and Will Murray. The AMLR Program is excited to be working with a new logistical support vessel, the M/V Nansen. However, an unusual string of storms in the Drake Passage along with unfortunate timing in the evolution of weather forecasts led to a delayed start to the field season. One substantial setback was that the Bespoke crew, along with a majority of their construction materials, were loaded onto and then offloaded from the vessel; they will remain in Punta Arenas until the Nansen’s return in mid-December.

Eventually, the U.S. AMLR crew departed Punta Arenas for the Antarctic aboard the M/V Nansen on November 26^th at 11:00 a.m. The crew is extremely thankful for the tireless support and good humor of the Bespoke team, as well as the crew and officers of the M/V Nansen who were flexible in support of logistics and who made our stay aboard extraordinarily comfortable. The weather and sea conditions during the Drake Passage crossing were excellent. The ship arrived at Cape Shirreff in the morning of Tuesday, November 29^th.

The ship arrived at 8:00 a.m., gear staging began at 9:00 a.m., and Zodiacs were launched by 9:30 a.m.  Wind speeds at the anchorage were moderate to high (< 22 mph), recent storms provided a mix of 2-3 m swell which was workable but slow for loading Zodiacs, and the boats only took half (or less) of a “traditional” load. The team spent the next four and a half hours transferring cargo from ship to shore. Thank you for the extra help on shore from Millie! Just after 2:00 p.m. the last Zodiac of cargo was delivered, and the Zodiacs were called back to the ship.  At that point only 15-20% of cargo had been transferred to shore, but those cargos contained enough of the safety essentials that the AMLR crew felt comfortable to remain ashore.  One load of fresh food was transferred ashore via helicopter at approximately 5:00 p.m.; however, the prevailing landing spot and conditions were not conducive to further helicopter operations. By 8:00 p.m., the ship was underway to their next destination. The total number of Zodiac trips for gear and personnel was estimated at fourteen. 

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Snow cover for Cape Shirreff at arrival was below average for this time of year. Very little shoveling was needed to access the doorways at camp, and the entire build site is clear of snow. All overwinter storage bins remained intact. There was no detectable damage to the camp or the emergency hut/bird blind on the north end of Cape Shirreff. All buildings have been cleaned, particularly for mold using the safety protocol in the Operations and Safety Manual.

Science Activities

Pinnipeds

Science commenced on December 1^st. The pinniped lab was set up, and all breeding colonies at U.S. AMLR study beaches were surveyed. The team also conducted the first Antarctic fur seal pup census and the first phocid census of the season. 

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Seabirds

Science commenced on December 1^st. The team checked the status of all the time-lapse cameras that were programmed last field season to capture the timing and success of penguin reproductive efforts. Several cameras remained functional over the winter, but numerous failures required that the team supplement nest monitoring with manual observations. New monitoring sites were established in seven colonies. 

On December 2^nd, the team began identifying all penguins that had been banded during previous field seasons (our “known-age” penguins). Resighting known-age penguins is used to estimate survival rates and other demographic parameters of the breeding population of gentoo and chinstrap penguins. 

Usually, the seabird team conducts an early-season study of penguin egg weights and sizes to provide an index of parental investment in offspring. However, this year, gentoo penguins began laying eggs early, and eggs were already hatching by the time the team arrived. Instead of conducting this study, the team instead conducted its annual nest census of gentoo and chinstrap penguins on December 4^th. 

The reproductive timing for chinstrap penguins appears to be closer to normal, so the team was able to conduct the early season study of egg weights and sizes for chinstrap penguins on December 5^th.

In addition to monitoring penguin populations, the seabird team also monitors populations of a few other common species of seabirds around Cape Shirreff. On December 4^th, the team surveyed the area around the Cape to locate the nesting territories and record the band numbers of brown skuas.

Camp Maintenance and Replacement

During the transit to Cape Shirreff, the entire field team read and signed the Operations and Safety Manual, and received U.S. AMLR scientific permit training. Once at Cape Shirreff, the team held an orientation and a fire safety drill. 

Some camp set-up duties still remain. The weather station is up and operational; however, the weather data logger remains on the M/V Nansen, so weather data is not being recorded yet. 

Water

Currently, water storage capacity at Cape Shirreff is at 45%. The team has installed all gutters and water retention barrels, but to date all precipitation has been both light and in the form of snow, so more water has been used than saved. Further, due to low snow presence upon arrival, the team has not been able to melt a useful amount of snow. They are conserving water for now.

Power

The wind and solar power systems were installed on December 4^th and are operational and the battery bank is functional, but performance indicates it is coming to the end of its useful life. Within 12 hours of each other both the wind and solar systems failed early on December 5^th. The wind generator was inspected, and is suffering from an internal (no field fix possible) problem. This is not surprising as it is on its third year in the field without repair. The generator is now in stasis and awaiting the two new wind units aboard the M/V Nansen. The issue with the solar system was trouble-shot, currently two of four panels are back on line, and the other two should be repairable.

Communications

Our Iridium telephone, email system with Iridium Certus, and Somewear Iridium texting units (which all field team members are carrying this year) are currently operational.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A (H5N1): HPAI

All seabird and pinniped colonies have been scanned daily. To date no signs or symptoms of avian flu have been detected in any animals at Cape Shirreff.

Cape Shirreff Rebuild Preparation

LT Wang has begun preparing the nearby Chilean camp and grounds for the pop-up tent camp, which will provide for the full Colorado Building Workshop / Bespoke design/construction team in January. 50% of gutters have been installed, and various repairs and organization are moving forward. However, as with other areas of field life, progress is hindered by not having access to supplies and cargo that were left aboard the M/V Nansen (including new water retention barrels). The team looks forward to the construction team’s arrival on approximately December 20^th.

Situation Report #2

Science Activities

Pinnipeds

Between December 6^th and 11^th, the pinniped team began their annual Antarctic fur seal attendance and foraging behavior study. The team selected ten Antarctic fur seal mother-pup pairs to represent the entire sample size for the 2022-23 season. These mother-pup pairs will be monitored throughout the season to study the mothers’ foraging trip durations during their cyclical trips to sea to feed while returning to nurse their pups on land, as well as to study their pups’ growth and development. The team deployed eight biologging instruments to record the mothers’ movements and foraging behavior throughout the summer, and they marked the pups with distinctive fur bleach patterns to track growth rate, behavior, and fate through the end of the field season. As of December 11^th, only one mother had departed for her first trip to sea after nursing her pup for several days after giving birth.

In addition to receiving a biologging instrument, each mother in the attendance study received a micro-VHF transmitter. Since the 2019/20 field season, the team has deployed 37 micro-VHF tags. These small transmitters will remain attached overwinter and the VHF monitoring stations at Cape Shirreff will track both colony arrival times and foraging trip lengths in early 2023-24. 

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The team continues to observe Antarctic fur seals arriving at breeding colonies each day. During the study beach fur seal pup census on December 11^th, the team recorded 159 live and 2 dead pups. 

Each year for more than 23 years, Cape Shirreff scientists have deployed a set of individually-identifiable flipper ID tags on a subset of pups born at Cape Shirreff. Attendance study mothers each year have also been tagged. Re-sights of these tags allow the team to estimate the total population size and calculate a survival rate for the population. So far this year, the team has observed 53 tagged fur seals, 15 of which were of known-age.

During the phocid census on December 9th, the team observed 211 elephant seals and 9 Weddell seals.

Seabirds

The seabird team continues daily monitoring of known-age chinstrap and gentoo penguin nests for reproductive success. As part of that effort, the team completed egg measurements from known-age chinstrap penguin nests. 

The team also continues to record all other sightings of banded penguins, noting their band number, nest placement, colony association, and, if possible, mate association and sex. 

The chinstrap penguin census was completed for all of the colonies, concluding the incubation period penguin nest census. Counts for chinstraps (2218) and gentoo penguins (865) represent increases relative to the last few years at Cape Shirreff. The count for gentoo penguins is particularly high, representing the 5^th highest nest census in the history of monitoring at Cape Shirreff. 

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The team conducted a preliminary check of kelp gull nests on December 8^th. Nests did not have eggs or chicks yet. The team will continue monitoring the nesting areas for evidence of reproductive activity in the coming weeks. 

The team continued surveys across Cape Shirreff for active brown skua nests. So far, 11 active nests have been identified and the team continues to find more on the west side of the island. The team has begun measuring eggs.

This week, the seabird team also assisted the pinniped team with tag deployments on the attendance study Antarctic fur seals. The team reports that the pups they encountered were healthy and feisty and were adorned with appropriately-considered Ted Lasso names.

Uncrewed Aerial Systems

The team has not yet received the full complement of uncrewed aerial system equipment. However, they conducted preliminary nest census flights over 3 chinstrap colonies.

Weather

The weather was generally fine this week aside from 1.5 days of high winds and snow. A full weather report will be provided next week when the new weather logger is installed.

Camp Maintenance and Replacement

Water

The team pulled together this week to harvest hundreds of gallons of water that were previously frozen inside of plastic crates at the Chilean field camp and transferred them to water storage barrels. The camp is at approximately 66% of water storage capacity and continues to conserve water.

Power

No updates. The 12v and 110v systems are both functioning. However, both the solar and wind systems remain compromised. See last week’s report for details.

Cape Shirreff Rebuild

In preparation for the arrival of the camp construction team in January, the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) field camp main building, igloo, workshop, and Commander’s hut have been accessed, repaired, partially cleaned, and a substantial amount of gear, equipment, and trash have been organized and stored to maximize available space. Gutters were installed on one half of the main camp roof, and then reinforced. Walkways were repaired to improve safety. 

We installed a second external Iridium antenna on the main U.S. camp to be used in the case of an emergency.

Camp Life and Safety

The team completed their annual camp opening medical drill.

It has been a busy opening couple of weeks at Cape Shirreff, but the team managed to carve out a few evenings to watch season 2 of Ted Lasso. The laughter and lighthearted moments in the show have been both appreciated and quoted widely by the team, and a few of the character names have made it into some of our wildlife tracking protocols. For example, a particularly persnickety study pup was named Led Tasso!

Cleaning, organizing, and general mold hunting continued this week. 

Situation Report #3

Science Activities

Pinnipeds

All ten of the attendance study Antarctic fur seal mother-pup pairs are healthy and all instrument mounts are intact. Each mother will make a series of trips to sea to forage and then return to provision her pup back on land. Throughout the season, mothers are tracked to see how long those trips take as an indicator of the current foraging conditions. Better foraging conditions lead to shorter trips, and better health outcomes for the pups. As of December 18^th, seven study females have left for their first trips to sea, and one is on her second trip.

This year’s attendance behavior study pups were all named after characters from the TV Show Ted Lasso. As part of the study, the team weighs each pup when their moms leave for their first and fourth trips to sea in order to track their growth rates. So far, the team has weighed Roy Kent, Sassy Smurf, Danny Rojas, Keely Jones, Phoebe, Led Tasso, and Coach Beard. All are doing well and growing at a healthy rate. 

New adult female fur seals have been arriving to the breeding colonies each day. During the study beach fur seal pup census on December 16^th, the team recorded 178 live pups, which compares to 203 pups born on the same date in 2021, or a decrease of 13%. 

For over 24 years, the team has annually deployed a set of individually-identifiable flipper ID tags on a subset of pups born at Cape Shirreff. Additionally, all adult female fur seals captured for attendance studies have been tagged. Resights of these tags allow the team to estimate the total population size and calculate a survival rate for the population. This year, the team has observed 68 tagged fur seal females, 21 of which are known-age seals.

During the phocid census on December 16^th, the team observed 227 elephant seals and 16 Weddell seals.

Otariid seals, like Antarctic fur seals, have a variety of rare coloration patterns. Most of them are leucistic in nature; essentially, animals that have pigmented skin and underfur, but low pigmentation in their outer fur. They can be “blonde” or “golden,” or even more rarely, we see other morphs. On Saturday, December 17^th, the team saw a juvenile male on a beach near the camp with a rare leucistic pattern (see photo). Interestingly, a pup was born at Cape Shirreff 6 years ago with just such a fur pattern, and the size of this male makes it a real possibility that it is the same seal. 

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Seabirds

There were three more known-age penguins that nested in the past week: one gentoo penguin and two chinstrap penguins. They have been included in the daily reproductive monitoring study and their eggs have been measured.

The team continues to record general banded penguins, known-age banded penguins, and banded skuas. Species, location, and sex are recorded when possible.

The team conducted a kelp gull census at two locations on December 15^th. On the northern side of the island at Loberia beach, the team counted 14 nests, 2 eggs, and 5 chicks. On the hillside of the tallest peak on Cape Shirreff, Toqui, the team counted 35 nests, 13 eggs, 11 chicks, and one deceased chick.

The team continues to survey Cape Shirreff for skua nests and to record egg measurements for newly-discovered nests. The team has now identified 17 nests throughout the U.S. AMLR study area.

On December 16^th, the team deployed a combination of video loggers and new accelerometer/GPS units on four chinstrap penguins. Because gentoo penguins have nests occupied with growing chicks, instruments were only deployed on chinstrap penguins. 

One day later, the first chinstrap chicks hatched! 

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Our macaroni penguin friend (the team likes to think it is the same one from last year) has been making appearances around the east colonies. It seems they prefer the lower part of Colony 13 as of late.

Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS)

The Cape Shirreff team plans to monitor the potential environmental impacts of our planned construction project and pop-up camp this austral summer. The team conducted its first systematic monitoring flight on December 13th (see aerial photo of the existing U.S. and Chilean camps). The full complement of uncrewed aerial systems and equipment were delivered to the Cape on December 12^th. The UAS manufactured by Aerial Imaging Solutions were inspected, but have not yet been calibrated and set up.

On December 13^th, we completed a nest census flight over chinstrap penguin colony 29. 

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Weather

The team is so excited to have the weather station fully operational that it’s going to give the audience two versions of the weekly weather report. 

Option 1: 

The main weather station has been set up and started recording on December 14^th. Wind speed averaged out at 13.6 mph with occasional gusts maxed out at 41 mph. Winds have been predominantly from the west 46% of the time and occasionally from the north 37% of the time. The temperature reached a high of 4^oC and a low of -0.4^oC (average: 2.0^oC). We received 0.58 inches of precipitation and are not recording solar radiation.

Option 2:

Scene: Sergio is wearing burgundy slacks, a beige button up shirt with a black skinny tie, and his hair is perfectly coifed. His sleeves are rolled up, revealing a full sleeve tattoo to give the impression that he’s professional, but with an edge that suggests he knows the weather better than anyone.

Enter Sergio: Sergio here with your weekly weather forecast. The main weather station was set up and began recording on December 14^th. All settings were calibrated according to our handy dandy Weather Station Protocol and all systems are running smoothly. Cape Shirreff experienced a high of 4^oC and a low of 0.4^oC with an average of 2^oC and an average wind chill of -2.8^oC. Brrrrrr! Winds were felt plowing their way in from the west, but occasionally changed direction, coming in from the north and averaging 13.6 mph with gusts up to 41 mph. Talk about mood switching on the fly! Total precipitation for the week has been 0.58 inches, and we could use some more because bathing at this point is very much necessary. 

So hopefully you kept your pups and chicks close because it was a chilly week and the outlook remains the same. Back to you at the La Jolla Station!  

Camp Maintenance and Replacement

Water

Thanks to a bit of rainy weather, the field camp storage barrels are now approximately 85% full.

Power

The team received 2 new wind generators during the offload from the M/V Nansen on December 12^th. The team replaced the one that was installed at the opening that was having issues. The new unit is operating well.  

Rust, rot, and user error weakened several camp building doors to the point of breaking off their hinges. We fixed both doors, and also hung a new door to protect the generator powering the freezers in the Chilean camp.

Cape Shirreff Rebuild

Late on the evening of December 11^th, the team received the pleasant news that the M/V Nansen was planning to come to Cape Shirreff to offload the rest (85% as it turns out) of the cargo that was not offloaded at camp opening. The M/V Nansen arrived on December 12^th. The weather conditions were fantastic, with winds under 10 knots all day. The Cape Shirreff team, the EYOS expedition leader, Moira, and the ship’s crew worked tirelessly during the offload. Between 03:30 and 10:45 a.m., 40 zodiac loads of cargo, equipment, food, and personnel were transferred to Cape Shirreff. After the ship departed around 11:00 a.m., the Cape Shirreff team continued to move and secure this truly unprecedented amount of cargo onshore. Cargo operations were completed around 5:00 p.m., after which the crew took a very well earned rest.

After the supplies were offloaded on December 12^th, a great deal of progress was made by David and the team in preparation for the construction team’s arrival.

In anticipation of the arrival of the Bespoke team (the first-wave construction team) and the bulk of the new building construction materials, this week the team moved approximately 80% of the materials on the beach up to the camp area. The U.S. and Chilean camp areas have been organized for maximal gear storage, and the beach has been organized to facilitate the offload of construction materials.

The Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) field camp main building, igloo, workshop, and Commander’s hut were cleaned and are ready to house personnel. The Commander’s hut has been converted to store fresh and frozen foods. Nonperishable foods and kitchenware are stored in the Main hut.  

Chilean Power: Two generators were installed at the camp to provide power for 2 of the buildings. One generator is powering the two freezers, and one is providing power to the main building.

Two Arctic oven tents were installed as well as the floor of the Weather Haven tent.  

One of the King Camp outhouses was installed by the Chilean camp.

Both gutters are now operational at the Chilean camp.  After only a few days, the barrels fed by these gutters are approximately 35% full. 

Five fish boxes have been emptied and positioned on the boat beach to facilitate easy loading in case the opportunity arises to move them out to the bird blind by Zodiac. 

Camp Life and Safety

As the holiday season draws closer, several signs of holiday spirit are rearing their heads around camp. In addition to customized Christmas stockings (thank you Victoria!), the Christmas tree was set up and trimmed in proper fashion, and a Christmas-themed table cloth was brought out this morning to brighten spirits!

Traditionally at Cape Shirreff, the team shares dinner cooking responsibilities amongst the science crew throughout the season. Historically, this was done one at a time, with one person prepping, cooking, and cleaning on a given night. This year, the team has decided to try out a new “sous chef” model, where a second person always assists the main cook. So far this has worked out wonderfully well!

This year, the team is continuing the tradition of a community-cooked, Mexican-themed dinner on Taco Tuesday nights. Also, this continues to be a big hit.

Cleaning, organizing, and general mold hunting continued this week.

As they make their way south across the Drake Passage on the M/V Nansen, the whole camp is excited to see Bespoke folks Shaggy, Soup, and Will again and welcome them to the Cape!

Situation Report #4

Cape Shirreff Rebuild

This week, we’re starting with the important stuff! After a few weeks’ delay, the final three members of the camp opening team arrived at Cape Shirreff! The Bespoke construction team–Shaggy, Will, and Soup (Samantha)–arrived aboard the M/V Nansen at approximately 3:30 a.m. December 22^nd. Zodiac operations began at 4:00 a.m. The swell and winds were marginal throughout the day. Initial operations had some setbacks due to extensive turnover in the ship’s crew between the last visit and this one, so it was necessary to train new people and establish safe operating procedures. However, the Cape Shirreff and Bespoke teams and the ship’s crew persevered and between weather breaks managed to complete over 40 Zodiac loads of personnel and gear from the ship to the island. 

Operations resumed at 7:30 a.m. on December 23^rd with improved swell, but continued high winds. Through a truly Herculean team effort, everyone worked through the day until after midnight and offloaded 108 Zodiac loads full of construction materials! On Christmas Eve, operations began at 6:30 a.m. and 50 more Zodiac loads of construction materials were transferred to the island before weather conditions precluded small boat operations at 5:30 p.m. 

The final day of cargo operations was on Christmas Day. High winds and snow prevented boat operations long enough for the shore party to have a small celebration together (details below) and get some much needed rest. Operations resumed at 8:00 p.m. and continued until after 3:00 a.m. on December 26^th, during which we offloaded almost all of the remaining food, gasoline, and construction materials (another 42 Zodiac loads of gear). In the end, over 24 tons of construction materials, food, and gear were transferred from ship to shore in over 230 Zodiac loads and carried manually up the beach by the NOAA and Bespoke teams. We are all extremely proud of the hard work, attention to detail, commitment to safety, and perseverance that was displayed by all involved, and of what we accomplished. We are sending a massive thank you to our EYOS and M/V Nansen colleagues as well for a pinnacle example of teamwork in adverse conditions.

The Cape Shirreff field team is now recovering with heat wraps and a lot of ibuprofen. 

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At the same time that the ship’s crew was leading the construction offload, David and the Cape Shirreff team were preparing the nearby Chilean camp for the construction team. The team installed two generators at the camp to provide power for two of the buildings; one generator is powering the two freezers, and one is powering the main building. Both rain gutters installed previously remain operational, and one was elongated to increase water capture capacity.  The barrels fed by these gutters are approximately 80% full (320 gallons). 

The Bespoke team moved in on Christmas Day! 

Water

Thanks to a bit of rainy weather, the U.S. field camp storage barrels are now approximately 95% full (1,050 gallons), and an additional 50 gallons were stored in carboys.

Power

The solar, wind, and generator power systems are working well. This week the team tested two additional 3Kw generators and repaired a third.

Science Activities  

Pinnipeds

All ten of the attendance study Antarctic fur seal mothers continue making cyclical foraging trips to sea to provision their pups. As of December 25^th, all ten have left for their first trips to sea and one has completed four trips.

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New adult female Antarctic fur seals have been arriving at the breeding colonies each day. During the study beach fur seal pup census on December 18^th, the team recorded 190 live and 4 dead pups. 

Each year for over 24 years, U.S. AMLR scientists have deployed a set of individually-identifiable flipper ID tags on a subset of pups born at Cape Shirreff. Additionally, each adult female fur seal captured for annual attendance studies were ID tagged. Resights of these tags allow scientists to estimate the total population size and calculate a survival rate for the population. This year, the team has observed 70 tagged fur seal females, 22 of which were known-aged.

Due to cargo operations, no phocid census was completed this week.

This week, the team weighed all ten attendance study Antarctic fur seal pups after their mothers left for their first trips to sea. All are doing well and gaining weight. The largest weight gain was 2.8 kilograms – well done, Jaime (and mom)!

There isn’t much snow left around Cape Shirreff, but one mother-pup pair was observed walking far inland and crossing a big snow patch. We don’t know if they walked all that way looking for a snow patch, but they certainly did enjoy it. Lots of sliding and “inch-worming” was enjoyed by both.

Seabirds

On December 20^th and 21^st, the team retrieved telemetry instruments (video camera and accelerometer combination) from four chinstrap penguins. The new method of attachment using gaffer’s tape left plumage in unscathed condition after instrument removal.

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The team continues daily banded penguin resights and monitoring reproductive progress. 

The team also continued monitoring skua nests, revisiting the 17 original nests as well as hilltops that have had skua nests in previous years. The team recorded the band numbers of the parents present and an updated egg count.

Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS)

This week we completed one build site monitoring flight. 

Weather

Option 1: 

Wind speed averaged out at 15.1 mph with occasional gusts of 47 mph. Winds have been predominantly from the west 55% of the time and occasionally from the north 28% of the time. The temperature reached a high of 4.4^oC and a low of -0.6^oC (average of 2.4^oC). We received 0.51 inches of precipitation and are not recording solar radiation.

Option 2:

Scene: Sergio is exceptionally festive with dark olive green pants, a white button up shirt with a black bow tie that has tuffs of white faux fur behind the black (because he’s environmentally conscious and animal cruelty-free), black boots, and a Santa hat with a tassel that reaches his ankles which lets you know that he takes himself seriously but not too seriously. The weather monitor has an image of Santa relaxing in a beach chair with swim trunks on and a cocktail in hand, giving the vibe that he’s enjoying Christmas in San Diego.

Enter Sergio: Sergio here with your holiday week weather forecast. Let’s hope there’s no fog because Rudolph is taking a holiday vacation this year and we can only hope that Santa’s sleigh has working fog lights installed (lightly giggles at the genius of his own Christmas joke). The main weather station continues to run smoothly. We have had exceptionally amazing weather, as Cape Shirreff experienced a high of 4.4^oC and a low of 0.6^oC with an average of 2.4^oC and an average wind chill of -2.4^oC, yikes that’s warm! The winds gallantly made their way in from the west with ever-so-slight directional changes coming in from the north, averaging 15.1 mph with gusts up to 47 mph, she is gusting tah-day. Total precipitation for the week has been 0.51 inches but it sure felt a lot wetter than that. An actual change in precipitation or just how wet the Cape is, hmm.    

So shed those layers, don your gay apparel and make sure those pups are behaving themselves because the holidays are upon us and ya know Santa is watching. Back to you at the La Jolla Station!

Camp Life

The South Pole Christmas Elves drummed up a weather break from cargo operations during Christmas morning. After a planned late start to the day, the Cape Shirreff crew enjoyed some magnificent cinnamon rolls for breakfast followed by a gift exchange, including many funny and thoughtful gifts. Due to cargo operations, Christmas dinner was postponed until December 26^th (more details next week).

In addition to completing all of the cargo operations, the ship was also kind enough to do some laundry for the campers, and provided a few hot meals to help the folks ashore who didn’t have enough time to cook. Thank you, M/V Nansen!

The Cape Shirreff team can’t describe how awesome it is to have Shaggy, Will, and Soup at the Cape. The band is back together! Looking forward to all of the butt kicking ahead until wave two arrives next week!

That’s pretty much it. This week was a bit of a blur.

Situation Report #5

Science Activities

Pinnipeds

All ten Antarctic fur seal AFS mother-pup pairs in the attendance study continue making cyclical foraging trips to sea to provision their pups. As of December 31^st, one female has completed five trips, one has completed four trips, three have completed three trips, three have completed two trips, and two are on the slow boat and have only completed a single trip.

On December 28^th, the pinniped team surveyed all current and historical Antarctic fur seal breeding beaches to count pups. The final count, from an average of three independent observers, was 498 live and dead pups. That total confirms the concern over the future of the South Shetland Islands population of Antarctic fur seals, and represents a 21.4% decrease from last year’s count.

In slightly better news, the team conducted its first post-4^th trip weight of one of our study pups. Led Tasso gained 3.9 kg since his post-perinatal weight! Good job Led (and mom).

For the nine attendance study mothers carrying micro-VHF transmitters, the average foraging trip length for the first trip to sea is 80.9 hours (n = 9), 86.1 hours for the second trip (n = 7), 66.3 hours for the third trip (n = 4), 58.8 hours for the fourth trip (n = 2), and 90.7 hours for the fifth trip (n = 1). The average across all seals and trips is 78.4 hours (n = 23, 3.3 days, which is lower than the 20-year average). Shorter foraging trips suggest that the feeding environment close to breeding beaches is favorable.

Each year for more than 24 years, the pinniped team at Cape Shirreff has deployed a set of individually-identifiable flipper ID tags on a subset of pups born at Cape Shirreff. Additionally, we have ID tagged each adult female fur seal that we captured for our attendance studies. Resights of these tags allow us to estimate the total population size and calculate a survival rate for the population. This year we have observed 70 tagged female fur seals, 22 of which were known-aged.

A few leopard seals have been observed at Cape Shirreff intermittently since the team arrived in November, but they are starting to arrive in higher numbers more consistently. During this week’s phocid census, the team counted 229 elephant seals, 15 Weddell seals, and two leopard seals.

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Seabirds

After taking a four-day break from science to help offload construction supplies for the Cape Shirreff rebuild, the seabird team got back to the birds. This past week the team continued to carefully monitor the reproductive progress of known-age penguins. The team placed colored rocks to help identify those nests when the banded partner is not present, but an accumulation of guano on those rocks has left them unrecognizable! The team spent some time re-marking the nests with more colored rocks.

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The team established eight non-disturbance reproductive monitoring sites in colonies where the overwinter time-lapse Reconyx cameras failed. Each site contains five nesting penguins which are monitored daily for changes in egg/chick progress or loss. One site failed mid-December (meaning all study nests were abandoned), but the other seven are currently thriving.

On December 30^th, the seabird team took a field trip to one of the southernmost locations, Punta Oeste, where historically there have been brown skua nests. This full-day endeavor was led by Sam Woodman and the team was successful in locating two more nests! Additionally, one skua nest that recently failed relocated to a nearby beach and found a new home in a whale rib bone. Our total count of successful brown skua nests for Cape Shirreff is 18, and half of them have chicks now.

In preparation for the incoming construction crew, the seabird team has been assisting in tent setup as well.

Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS)

This week the Cape Shirreff team completed two build-site monitoring flights, and collected some additional video surveys of the construction materials on the boat beach and the build site with batter boards up. Additionally, the team began the inspection, calibration, and testing of the APH-28 UAS system in anticipation of conducting an Antarctic fur seal pup census of the St. Telmo Islands.

Weather

Option 1: 

Wind speed averaged 11.1 mph with occasional gusts of 41 mph. Winds have been predominantly from the east 46.6% of the time and occasionally from the north 31.7% of the time. The temperature reached a high of 3.7^oC and a low of -0.8^oC (average of 1.3^oC). We received 0.60 inches of precipitation and are not recording solar radiation.

Option 2:

Scene: The scene opens up from blackout and Sergio is sitting on a stool with fitted navy blue chinos, a gold yellow and white checkered button-up shirt with the top two buttons undone, and khaki dress shoes. He is pensive as the camera pans from above to his face where the radiant Colgate smile gives a warm welcoming aura to the viewers but the weather monitor is off to show that a serious opening is upon them. 

Enter Sergio: Sergio here with your weekly weather history. I realized that I am in fact not forecasting the weather and have deceived my viewers. For that I apologize and only hope that you have not lost trust in me because I still trust in you. The truth is I am in fact a weather historian, as I only give you the details of what has happened the week prior and not what will possibly happen next week. With that (stands up with an air of leadership that only someone born an Aries has) let us usher in a new era of Weather Historians as I am not the first and certainly won’t be the last, but perchance will be the best dressed? I certainly hope so. The main weather station continues to run smoothly even through storms that brought in 41 mph gusts, with an average of 11.1 mph. At last we can fully trust our weather station and rue the day we ever doubted its abilities. We have escaped 2022 with grace and dignity as we have proven worthy to enter 2023 but not without its challenges. January 1^st saw us endure a storm that had regular wind speeds of 30 mph throughout the day. Talk about walking the gauntlet as a test of our will and strength for what 2023 has in store. Cape Shirreff experienced a high of 3.7^oC and a low of -0.8^oC with an average of 1.3^oC and an average wind chill of -2.4^oC. The winds made a cute change as they came in from the east last week versus the usual westerlies we face, and we experienced regular directional changes coming in from the north. Those northern winds just don’t know how to let the other cardinal directions have their moment. Jealous much? Total precipitation for the week has been 0.60 inches, which could not come any sooner and is very much appreciated. When the elephant seals have to cover their noses because you walk by then you know it’s time for that long-anticipated shower.    

Now grab your rubber duckies and scrub the stench of 2022 off of you as we prepare to ring in the New Year clean and tidy-ish. Happy New Year and back to you at the La Jolla Station!

Camp Maintenance and Replacement

The Bespoke team has been working at an impressive rate and the build site has come alive with batter boards and foundations! 

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David and the team continued apace this week, working against the weather and the clock to prepare everything for the arrival of the complete construction crew.

A wooden generator box was constructed to house the Bespoke generator in the tent camp near the build site. Once the build site was finalized, it became clear that two of the large tents needed to be moved. David helped the Bespoke team move the Arctic Oven.

The team constructed the Weather Haven tent, and David has now outfitted it with propane heat, and a series of lines for clothes drying and privacy changing areas. A second outhouse platform was also constructed, and the first three sleeping tents were set up.

David ran a second propane line in the Chilean main hut for a secondary four-burner stove that will be used to prepare meals once the entire construction crew arrives. 

The Igloo door was repaired, and is functional for the first time in at least 5 years!

Both gutters continue to be operational at the Chilean camp, and one was elongated to increase water capture capacity. The barrels fed by these gutters are approximately 90% full. 

Water

Thanks to a bit of rainy weather, the U.S. field camp storage barrels are now approximately 99% full. Additionally, we sanitized and cleaned three barrels that had previously been used to store water for science purposes. Those three will now be designated for shower water only, expanding our storage capacity by 150 gallons, for a total of 1300 in barrels, and another 50 in carboys.

Camp Life

Due to all of the work involved in the construction material offload on Christmas day, and the arrival of our three new Bespoke camp mates, we delayed cooking up a Christmas dinner until December 26^th. And what a feast it was! The Bespoke team joined in immediately and contributed to an impressive spread that included locally smoked salmon served with a whipped dill cream cheese, smoked/roasted leg of lamb, garlic mashed potatoes, a veggie medley, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, and cranberry-glazed chicken thighs, all followed up with Dutch apple and pumpkin pies and brownies! The evening was filled with laughs and full bellies, Merry Christmas!

When New Year’s Eve rolled around, we took another break from our productive, long days to mark the special day. Sergio cooked up an incredible spread, and the crew engaged in a progressive dinner with appetizers in the Igloo followed by the main event in Cabo Lodge. At Sergio’s suggestion, everyone wrote down one or more things on slips of paper that we were ready to let go of, and then after midnight we burned them all in the grill. It was a wonderful way to start the New Year – Happy 2023 everyone!

Situation Report #6

Science Activities

Pinnipeds

All ten Antarctic fur seal mother-pup pairs in the attendance study continue making cyclical foraging trips to sea to provision their pups. As of January 6^th, two females have completed six trips, one has completed five trips, three have completed four trips, and two are on the slow boat and have only completed two trips.

This week, the team collected four post-fourth trip weights from the pups of attendance study females. All pups gained at least 2.7 kg from their post-perinatal weight.

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For the twelve Antarctic fur seal females carrying micro-VHF transmitters, the average trip length for the first trip is 807.3 hours (n = 12), 101.3 hours for the second trip (n = 12), 79.5 hours for the third trip (n = 10), 64.2 hours for the fourth trip (n = 7), 68.4 hours for the fifth trip (n = 5), and 60.2 hours for the sixth trip (n = 3). The average across all seals and trips is 82.2 hours (n = 49, 3.4 days).

After serious and intensive statistical analysis, the team determined that the median date of pupping was December 4^th, 2022 – the earliest date in the history of this population.

The female elephant seals at Cape Shirreff are now fattened up a bit after weaning their pups back in November, and are returning to molt in large numbers. During this week’s phocid census, the team counted 351 elephant seals, 14 Weddell seals, and one leopard seal.

This week, the team performed the first round of CCAMLR pup weights on January 7^th. For this study, the team weighs the first 50 pups it finds. The average weights for Round One were 9.2 kg for females (n=25) and 10.8 kg for males (n=25).

This week, the team also collected DNA samples from one known-age female fur seal and from ten pups. These, and other samples from known-age individuals collected this season, were stored in RNAlater (a storage reagent for tissue that will be used for genetic analyses) and will be analyzed by our collaborator Dr. Carolina Bonin-Lewallen to test a method for aging seals using their epigenetic markers.

Seabirds

On January 5^th, Dr. Jefferson Hinke arrived at Cape Shirreff and was brought up to speed on the progress of seabird studies. The team wished Louise Guiseffi, fellow seabird team member, a safe journey home as she departed camp. 

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The team deployed radio transmitter tags on 15 chinstrap and 11 gentoo penguins over the weekend. The tags are deployed during the period when birds are feeding their chicks in order to collect data on the duration that the penguin is away from the nest, typically foraging.

The team continues daily resights and reproductive monitoring studies. Every day, more and more gentoo penguin chicks are left unattended by their parents. This event marks the beginning of the crèche period. 

Brown skua nest monitoring continues as the majority of chicks have hatched. All nests remain active with no failed nests this week.

The team continues to look for beach cast and spilled krill from penguin nests, but have been unsuccessful in finding intact krill. We will continue to search for krill to complete our krill length-frequency study.

Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS)

It was a banner week for the UAS team. In addition to completing the weekly build site monitoring flight, the team completed an entire aerial survey of the San Telmo Islets for only the second time in history. Coverage was obtained during three consecutive flights, all lasting longer than 15 minutes, and two of which exceeded one nautical mile from the ground station. The APH-28 system performed perfectly. Given the precipitous population status for South Shetland fur seals and the historical importance of the San Telmo Islets, the count of pups we will be able to make from the aerial photos are valuable data indeed. 

Weather

Option 1: 

Wind speed averaged out at 11 mph, with occasional gusts of 43 mph. Winds have been predominantly from the east 41.8% of the time, and sometimes from the north (30.7% of the time) and the west (22.6% of the time). The temperature reached a high of 6.1^oC and a low of -0.1^oC (average of 2.6^oC). We received 0.70 inches of precipitation and are not recording solar radiation.

Option 2:

Scene: Sergio is standing in front of a window and there is construction going on in the background. He is clearly in great spirits and is almost annoyingly happy. His usual chic business casual attire has been replaced with construction couture khaki work pants, a flannel, and a puffy warm vest in coordinating colors. There is an air of outdoorsy executive extravaganza about him that says he owns an architectural firm that has made some of the century’s best buildings, but he didn’t lift a finger to make it happen other than design the building. 

Enter Sergio: Sergio here with your weekly weather history. As you can see behind me, the construction crew is off to a great start as the walls are now up along with other taller things (chuckles with cute embarrassment), and we awaken every day to the surprise of more blocks added to the building. The main weather station continues to run smoothly even as winds continue to try their best to bring it down, with gusts of 43 mph and an average speed of 11 mph. Slow and steady win-d-s the race. We have had many bright sunshiny days the past week, but we are on our toes with bouts of foul weather here and there. Cape Shirreff experienced a high of 6.1^oC and a low of -0.1^oC with an average of 2.6^oC and an average wind chill of -1^oC. With warm weather like this you know what they say: Suns out guns out (flexes his arms in a body builder pose)! The winds are all distraught as they fought for dominance of the skies. The westerly winds came in seeking to reclaim their throne with 41.8% success followed by the northern winds with a 30.7% approval rate and the easterlies coming at us with 22.6% likeability. The southern winds were dead last at 4.9%. Clearly they can’t sit with us. Total precipitation for the week has been 0.70 inches. I’ll gladly take that 0.10% increase in order to decrease the funk by the same.   

(Grabs a diamond encrusted hammer) Time to go do my part and help get this building up (winks at camera). Back to you at the La Jolla Station!

Camp Maintenance and Replacement

The M/V Nansen arrived at Cape Shirreff just before 8 a.m. on January 3^rd. Zodiacs came ashore to facilitate a meeting onboard between the ship, EYOS, Bespoke, and NOAA representatives. A need for rest on the ship and some unexpected delays in moving equipment out of the hold prevented Zodiac cargo operations. However, rest was had by all and a few islanders grabbed (much needed) showers. At 8 a.m. on January 4^th, Zodiac operations began, but marginal working conditions and the ship’s position limited loading until after lunch. After dinner the swell and winds dropped, and full loading of Zodiacs commenced in earnest. When the last load of construction cargo came ashore just after midnight (!!!), another 50 Zodiac loads of cargo had been transferred safely ashore! Now begins the processes of construction and cargo repositioning.

The Bespoke team, now at full strength (10 people plus two NOAA personnel), continues to make amazing progress! There are now floors installed on solid, grounded foundations, and the beginnings of walls on all sides of both buildings. It is extremely exciting to watch it come together.

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David and the NOAA team passed the reigns of the Pop-up camp over to the professionals that we hired to run it: Our cook (Rene) and camp manager (Ellie) have been amazing, they both jumped right in and have kept meals and living facilities warm and wonderful! Some pop-up highlights for the week:

• A new wooden outhouse was constructed at the construction site and adorned with a gorgeous cut-out of a seal on the door (an homage to a juvenile elephant seal named “Sh*&-neck Bruce” who planted himself on the beach throughout all cargo operations and slept very soundly in a pile of his own feces while we worked).

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• All sleeping tents and a third Arctic Oven tent were set up before the crew’s arrival, including eight Polar Pyramids and four Northface tents. Tents were secured with large rocks and stakes, and each camper received a cot, two pads, and a sleeping bag to keep them warm.
• Both gutters continue to be operational at the Chilean camp, and one was elongated to increase water capture capacity.  The barrels fed by these gutters are approximately 99% full. 

Water

We’ve continued to get rainy weather, so the U.S. field camp storage barrels are approximately 99% full.

Camp Life

On January 5^th, as part of the cargo and personnel exchange described above, we were excited to welcome our colleague Dr. Jefferson Hinke to the U.S. AMLR science party, and sad to wave goodbye to Louise Giuseffi as she departed north.
On the evening of January 8^th, Rene and Ellie graciously offered to prepare dinner for all 19 Cape Shirreff residents so that we could all meet socially (some for the first time, despite our close quarters). It was also an opportune time to hold a “ground breaking” or “commencement” ceremony. Doug, with input from Heidi Taylor, Jefferson Hinke, and Rachel Krause (Doug’s wife), gave a short speech outlining the importance of the new camp buildings, and specifically emphasized that AERD’s two amazing Division Directors (Drs. Rennie Holt and George Watters) are, far and away, the most responsible for the success and maintenance of our field science programs and the quality of our work. As such, the new facility has been named the “Holt Watters Field Camp!” A fun evening of camaraderie, delicious pizza, and a few songs by our resident performer, Shaggy, helped ring in the occasion. Copies of the speech available upon request.

Situation Report #7

Science Activities

 Pinnipeds

All ten Antarctic fur seal attendance study mothers continue making cyclical foraging trips to provision their pups. As of January 13^th, one female has completed eight trips, two females have completed seven trips, three have completed six trips, one has completed five trips, two have completed four trips, and one has completed three trips.

This week, the team recovered three Global Positioning System/Time Depth Recorder (GPS/TDR) instruments from attendance study mothers that had been deployed since December. The team will recover the remaining five instruments later this season.

The team weighed three attendance study fur seal pups after their mothers’ fourth trips to sea, and one pup after its mother’s 6^th trip to sea. All pups gained at least 3 kg from their post-perinatal weight, and thus are still drinking lots of milk!

The team continues to monitor foraging trip duration in twelve fur seal females with pups using micro-VHF transmitters. The average trip length across all seals and trips is 79.3 hours (3.3 days, n = 63). The average has been 87.3 hours for the first trip (n = 12), 101.3 hours for the second trip (n = 12), 79.3 hours for the third trip (n = 12), 72.1 hours for the fourth trip (n = 11), 62.5 hours for the fifth trip (n = 9), and 61.0 hours for the 6^th trip (n = 7).

Female elephant seals continue to haul out at Cape Shirreff to molt in large numbers. During this week’s phocid census, the team counted 356 elephant seals, 28 Weddell seals, and 5 leopard seals.

The team collected two more DNA samples from known-age fur seal females, along with 10 from pups for a collaboration with Dr. Carolina Bonin-Lewallen to test a method for aging seals using epigenetic markers.

The team tagged one adult female leopard seal this week. So far the team has tagged three leopard seals this season and obtained one DNA sample. 

Seabirds

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The team continues to re-sight banded penguins and monitor penguin nests for reproductive success. Fourteen out of the 22 active known-age gentoo penguin nests have had chicks crèche. Currently, there are five remaining known-age chinstrap nests, as eight others have failed.

The team deployed four more sets of telemetry instruments on chinstrap penguins on December 13^th. The team hopes that in two days, the “chinstrap junior scientists” will return with video footage of their foraging along with location, diving, and accelerometer data.

On December 14^th, the team banded 120 breeding adult penguins: 40 gentoo penguins and 80 chinstrap penguins. The presence and breeding success of these banded birds will be monitored in future years as part of the AMLR Program’s long-term survival study.

The team observed 15 active brown skua nests and 17 total known chicks. One more nest failed this past week.

All failed overwinter trail cameras were officially decommissioned this week. The team is working on developing a more consistent and robust setup for the cameras in order to withstand the harsh environmental conditions for next year.

Krill collection has yet again been postponed as none have washed up on the beach or spilled from adult penguins feeding their offspring.

Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS)

This week we completed the weekly build site monitoring flight, and recorded some video of the build site and materials. 

Weather

Option 1: 

Wind speed average was 15.7 mph, with gusts of up to 62 mph! Winds have been predominantly from the west (75.6%), from the north (17.3%) and occasionally from the east (6.5%). The temperature reached a high of 5.1^oC and a low of 0.7^oC (average of 2.5^oC). We received 0.26 inches of precipitation and are not recording solar radiation.

Option 2:

Scene: As the camera opens the scene, we see Sergio is back at the studio looking as dapper as ever in his bespoke outfit of slate blue fitted chinos, a cream colored button-up, pastel yellow skinny tie and a dark grey cardigan with the sleeves of the button up shirt rolled up over the cardigan to signify his status amongst the fashionable elite. 

Enter Sergio: Sergio here to deliver your weekly weather history. The main weather station continues to run smoothly for most reports, but we once again do not trust it. It was clearly a wet week last week, with rain every other day. It certainly felt like it as we wrung out our sopping wet clothes multiple times, but our station reported that we only received 0.26 inches of precipitation. Hmmm, time to invest in a new weather station perchance? The winds decided to inflict upon us their fury with gusts of 62 mph, but mostly the winds were weak, with an average of 15 mph. So hope you held on to your fedoras, cuz she was a gustin’ for exactly one day. Cape Shirreff experienced a high temperature of 5.1^oC and a low of 0.7^oC, with an average temperature of 2.5^oC and an average wind chill of -6.5^oC. Those winds really brought down the cozy mood temperatures with their angry airstreams. More specifically, those dastardly westerly winds dominated the skies and the lids to our fishboxes. The westerly winds sought to reclaim their throne two weeks ago and have come out on top this week, blowing at us 75% of the time….no need to talk about the other weaker winds. They were the D-listers of the skies this past week and couldn’t even get onto the back alley red carpet if they paid their way in. 

So I hope you battened down your windows and tied down your hats during those gusty nights because Antarctica hath no fury like gale force winds! Back to you at the La Jolla Station!

Camp Maintenance and Replacement

The team went a whole week without offloading a bunch of stuff from a ship in the middle of the night! And there was much rejoicing!

The Bespoke construction project continues apace, forging ahead in the face of our typically-frustrating weather patterns (lots of wind and rain, then sleet and wind, then 10 minutes of beautiful calm sun, then sleet again). The construction team is working on its own update, so stay tuned for those details soon!

Some weekly highlights from the pop-up camp:

• The initial latrine tent lasted about a month, but was finally shredded by a storm this week. In response, the latrine platform was moved inside the Chilean workshop, and that seems to be working out nicely. 
• All sleeping and storage tents continue to stand. Camp Coordinator Ellie Mango has been doing regular surveys, and has made some minor repairs to guy lines and poles.
• Both rain gutters continue to be operational at the Chilean camp.  The barrels fed by these gutters are approximately 65% full. 
• After a full seven days of construction activities, the team completed a gasoline inventory, and it appears that there will be just enough gas to cover the needs of the projects. Stay tuned for updates. 
• Read more about the rebuild from the perspective of the construction team here.

Water and other maintenance

The rain continues at Cape Shirreff, so the U.S. field camp storage barrels are approximately 93% full.

David replaced the main propane regulator for the kitchen stove, which has improved stove and oven performance noticeably. 

Camp Life

Due to a combination of weather and the time of year, the science team has been able to get together for dinner regularly at 7 p.m., which has allowed for some post-dinner hang out time. One night, AERD Director George Watters joined in for a game of Code Names which was really fun. Other highlights include starting Ted Lasso again so that Jefferson is fully indoctrinated, and Rogue One.

The science team has also enjoyed intermittently joining the construction crew to help out whenever possible, and getting to know a few of the crew members a bit better. The science team has started rotating taking construction team members, or Ellie (Camp Coordinator) or Rene (Camp Cook) out for hikes as schedules and weather allows. It is always exciting to “see” the Cape through the eyes of folks who have never been here before.

Situation Report #8

Science Activities

Pinnipeds

Nine of the ten Antarctic fur seal attendance study mothers continue making cyclical foraging trips to provision their pups. One female lost her pup, likely due to leopard seal predation. As of January 20^th, the average trip length across all seals and trips is 79.6 hours (3.3 days, n = 67). The average for the first trip has been 87.3 hours (n = 12), 101.3 hours for the second trip (n = 12), 79.3 hours for the third trip (n = 12), 70.4 hours for the fourth trip (n = 11), 67.9 hours for the fifth trip (n = 10), and 64.5 hours for the 6^th trip (n = 9).

This week the team captured one more attendance study female to recover her instrument due to a degraded instrument mount. The team’s suspicions about the quality of the mount were confirmed when the instrument popped off by itself during the capture! 

Because last season was severely shortened by COVID-19, satellite-linked instruments that were designed to fall off at the end of summer when the seals molt were deployed on several animals last year.  Most of the instruments fell off when the animals were at sea; however, one was shed at Cape Shirreff. The team was extremely happy to have found it this week! While the instruments transmit limited data via satellite, now the full resolution dive and movement data is available.

The team performed the second round of CCAMLR pup weights on January 22^nd. The first 50 pups encountered are weighed. The pups are much faster and slipperier after another 15 days of growing and playing in the tide pools! The average weights were 10.4 kg for females (n = 29, std dev = 1.43 kg) and 13.1 kg for males (n = 21, std dev = 1.73 kg).

This week, the team also tagged one juvenile female leopard seal, collected DNA from two female leopard seals, and collected whiskers from three female leopard seals.

Two DNA samples were collected from known-aged fur seals, and the team also determined sex and collected DNA samples from three fur seal pups of tagged females.

Lastly, the team collected eight scats during the fifth week of scat collection to determine diet composition of breeding fur seal females. While scat samples are not processed in the field anymore, all samples appear to include krill, while a few may also contain squid.

Elephant seals at Cape Shirreff abound! During last week’s phocid census, the team counted 386 elephant seals, 23 Weddell seals, and 6 leopard seals. The leopard seal numbers are consistent with this time of year during recent seasons.

Seabirds

Only two active known-age gentoo penguin nests remain active, as all of the others have crèched. There is only one more active gentoo non-disturbance nest. All of the known-age and non-disturbance chinstrap nests are still active and going strong. One known-age chinstrap nest has a particularly light colored chick and the team thinks it may be a blondie, but will have to wait and see once it molts!

Two more active skua nests were discovered and one more failed, bringing the total count to 16 active brown skua nests. Some chicks are reaching the size in which they can be banded soon.

On January 17^th, a gentoo penguin with a limpet completely stuck around its bottom beak was spotted on the daily monitoring rounds. It appeared to have been lodged into the beak so deep that it had likely occurred while the penguin was much younger, and the penguin had been living with it for some time. The team was able to successfully extract the limpet and could see immediate relief (from the penguin. The limpet’s condition is currently unknown).

The team conducted a kelp gull chick census on January 19^th, with a total of 6 chicks at Playa Loberia and 26 chicks at El Toqui.

A set of video loggers and accelerometers were deployed on four gentoo penguins on January 20^th, now that the majority of chicks are in the crèche stage. The video loggers will collect data for 5 hours and the accelerometer will collect data for four days before they are retrieved.

On January 21^st, the team conducted a gentoo chick census across all colonies. It counted a total of 1,008 chicks. Jefferson also assisted the pinniped team with a female fur seal capture.

In preparation for demolition of Ms. Skuas (the emergency shelter), the team has been clearing the building and carrying empty propane tanks, old supplies, and trash back to the main hut every day. The team also hosted lunch for the crew–a last supper, if you will–enjoying several boxes of old mac-n-cheese in an effort to eat the remaining food stashed there.

With the demolition of the Ms. Skuas imminent, the team also installed a temporary radio telemetry station to continue ongoing studies of penguin foraging behaviors. With the help of Lt. David Wang and Ellie Mango, the team disassembled and then moved a telemetry station from the top of Aymara to Ms. Skuas. The station was then reassembled with assistance from Doug Krause and Sam Woodman and was operational on January 23^rd. This temporary station will house our equipment to receive communications from radio transmitters attached to chinstrap and gentoo penguins until the end of our season (and also next year, if necessary).

The seabird team also assisted the pinniped team with another CCAMLR pup weight study.

Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS)

This week, the Cape Shirreff team completed the weekly build site monitoring flight, and charged UAS batteries in anticipation of penguin and new-build-site data gathering next week. 

Weather

Unfortunately, our normal weather man, Sergio, is not available to share the weather news for the week ☹.  Sadly, there is only a single boring option available: Wind speed average was 20.1 mph, with gusts of 54 mph! Winds have been predominantly from the west (85.1%). The temperature reached a high of 5.6^oC and a low of 0.2^oC (average of 3.3^oC). We received 0.30 inches of precipitation and are not recording solar radiation.

Camp Maintenance and Replacement

The Bespoke construction project continues apace. Both buildings (the Galley and the Berthing Suite) are up, with full roofs and are completely watertight. In addition to looking gorgeous from the outside, the interior spaces are taking shape as well, which is exciting for everyone.

Some weekly highlights from the pop-up camp:

• All sleeping and storage tents continue to stand. Ellie has been doing regular surveys, and has made some minor repairs to guy lines and poles.
• One Antarctic fur seal female, likely from Daniel beach, has lost her pup and is fixated on the build site as a potential location to find her pup again. The construction team has been patient and respectful and has stayed out of her way, and the pinniped team has done a good job helping her (passively) find her way back down to her own beach.
• Both rain gutters continue to be operational at the Chilean camp.  The barrels fed by these gutters are approximately 85% full. 

Water 

Cape Shirreff has continued to get rainy weather, so the U.S. field camp storage barrels are approximately 95% full.

Camp Life

The construction team kindly invited the science team to join in some cake and ice cream log celebrations for a dual birthday on January 16^th. Everyone hung out for a while in the new galley building, although the windows were not yet installed, so it was a bit chilly.

In addition to re-watching Ted Lasso, to fully indoctrinate Jefferson into the science team’s odd little world, a game night was held in the newly-sealed galley building. The science team along with several construction team members played Cranium, which provided an entertaining evening for all. 

The science team has also continued to integrate the construction crew into daily science hikes, and are workshopping titles for a new (fictional) tourist operation. One suggestion is “The Pinnipedestrians,” but the team is open to ideas (far be it for us to “bring an umbrella to a brain storm,” as Ted Lasso put it). It’s been great to help folks explore a bit more and understand the science program more deeply.

Situation Report #9

Science Activities

Pinnipeds

Eight of the ten Antarctic fur seal attendance study mothers continue making cyclical foraging trips to provision their pups. Two females have lost their pups, likely due to leopard seal predation. As of January 29^th, all attendance study mothers had completed six trips to sea, the first time in many years that all females reached that mark! Tune in next week for a final reveal of the average trip length across all females with live pups and working micro VHF transmitters.

The team recovered one more instrument that was deployed on a female fur seal. The lady carrying said instrument quite kindly rubbed the instrument off on the beach, and so we just had to pick it up off the sand!

The team collected nine scats during the fifth week of scat collection to determine diet composition for breeding fur seal females, bringing the season total to thirty-nine. All samples appear to include krill, while a few may also contain squid or fish.

The team successfully collected three DNA samples from known-aged fur seals, and also determined sex and collected DNA samples from one fur seal pup of a tagged female.

At this time of year, Antarctic fur seal mothers and their pups move up off of the study beaches onto the flats and other higher elevation areas around the Cape. This week, that included the deck of the camp as well! The deck was graced by not one but two puppies (albeit separately), and one loving fur seal mother. 

After reviewing the images gathered over last winter, the team adjusted and re-deployed three overwinter camera systems to monitor Antarctic fur seal breeding beaches. As the fur seal females wean their pups after the team’s departure this year, and potentially arrive before the team next November, cameras will take an image every 15 minutes to help establish key breeding metrics. 

In anticipation of the move into a new lab space next season, the team has begun a major overhaul of the existing stores of supplies. The plan is to be both streamlined and more organized when the new science space becomes available.

In addition to the overwinter cameras, the team will monitor the presence of the fur seal females with micro-VHF transmitters on their flipper tags. One of the overwinter listening stations was damaged by wind last year, so the old wooden mounting pole was replaced with an aluminum one that is hopefully more robust.

This week during the weekly phocid census, the team counted 309 elephant seals, 23 Weddell seals, and 4 leopard seals. The leopard seal numbers are consistent with this time of year during recent seasons.

Seabirds

On January 23^rd, with help from the pinniped team, the seabird team assembled a temporary VHF transmitter receiving station just outside of Ms. Skuas. This enables the team to continue receiving radio transmitter data from tagged penguins after Ms. Skuas is removed. The unit successfully collected data for the week. 

Early in the week the team took some of the construction crew on hikes around the penguin colonies and the west side of the peninsula. 

All gentoo chicks in the reproductive study have crèched! This event concludes daily monitoring of gentoo penguin nests for the 2022/23 season. The chinstrap chicks are not far behind and are likely to start their crèche sometime this week.

One more active skua nests was discovered with a small chick that likely hatched in the past week; however, two other territories containing one chick each failed. Skua territories are active and contain chicks at 15 locations. On January 25^th, the team went to all active territories to band chicks of adequate size and banded a total of 16 chicks.

The team successfully retrieved all telemetry instruments from four gentoo penguins. In a stunning turn of events, all three birds wearing cameras successfully recorded video logger footage of foraging activity!

On January 27^th, the team went to each gentoo colony with setups for time-lapse cameras and secured the poles and tripods for overwintering. A new tripod was set up to replace a single pole at Colony 23 to enable a two-camera setup with separate colony views. The pole from Colony 23 was transferred to Colony 18 where there are now 2 poles in different locations to encompass two separate colony views for the reproductive study. There are now seven cameras that will be deployed in the gentoo colonies at the end of the season.

The team continues to organize and pack gear for the imminent demolition of Ms. Skuas. Excess equipment and supplies have been removed from the hut, leaving only materials that are destined to remain at the building site. 

The team also removed the solar and electrical systems for future use in a new building. The blind now has a refreshing lack of stuff in and on it.  

Thanks to the Bespoke construction crew, two empty fish boxes were hand carried on custom shoulder slings all the way from the main hut to the blind. One box houses the solar array and electrical system. The second will be stuffed soon with research supplies. 

Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS)

This week the team completed the weekly build site monitoring flight, obtained photo and video coverage of the potential bird blind build site for 2023-24, and obtained some video footage of the new berthing and galley buildings, which are now complete on the exterior.

Weather

Our Weatherman, Sergio, is back this week so skip down to “Option 2” if you’ve been missing his take on the weather. 

Option 1: 

Wind speed average was 10.1 mph with occasional gusts of 36 mph. Winds have been predominantly from the east 43.9% of the time, from the north 34.5% of the time, and from the west 20.2% of the time. The temperature reached a high of 5.1^oC and a low of 0.6^oC (average of 2.8^oC). We received 1.25 inches of precipitation and are not recording solar radiation.

Option 2:

Scene: As the camera opens the scene, we see the familiar face and cheerful Colgate smile we have all grown to love coming from the beloved Sergio. The perfectly coiffed pompadour is striking and blends easily into a five o clock shadow that is also lined up neatly. The dashing hair combo frames the face that makes you want to ask….we know him, but who is he and how can we know more? He sits on a stool with some documents in one hand neatly placed over his knee while the other sits on top of that arm that states he has been doing some research and is ready to give you the facts, but in a charming way that lures the viewers in.

Enter Sergio: Hello! Sergio here and I couldn’t even begin to tell you how happy I am to be back again after a week off. I do hope you enjoyed the weather history with the ever-gallant Sam. Worry you not, dear viewers, for I shan’t leave you again (smiles at the camera almost flirtatiously as the camera switches to a different angle). The main weather station continues to run smoothly and to our surprise has given us a higher precipitation value than we have had all season. Hahaha I guess it doesn’t want to lose its job to a much fresher, newer and updated weather station (gives the camera a skeptical but amiable side glance). Our pinniped overlords granted us the rain we needed to wash off the patina our bodies have accumulated by giving us 1.25 in of rain this past week. The winds have eased off their assault of our camp and construction crew with the lowest recorded average wind speeds recorded this season: winds averaged 10.1 mph and…..doth my eyes deceive me? Gusts of only 36 mph!! (Gasps in Spanish). You must forgive my astonishment, dear viewers, for I am flabbergasted by such low wind speeds, as I have never experienced them so low during my tenure at Cape Shirreff. Continuing with the wind (fans himself with the weather report he holds in his hands), they are all over the place. They’re coming at us from the east 43.9% of the time, they’re coming at us from the north 34.5% of the time, and they’re coming at us from the west 20.2% of the time, with the southern winds being weak non-factors as usual. 

Even though we remained cold and wet, I hope you kept a dry warm place in your hearts for me during my absence (holds both his hands to his heart). Back to you at the La Jolla Station (smiles at the camera while the light shines a sparkly off of his teeth)!

Camp Maintenance and Replacement

The Bespoke construction project continues apace. Check out the Colorado Building Workshop website for details on the weekly construction Situation Report!

In preparation for the demolition of the original NOAA field camp buildings, the construction team has begun demolishing and packaging materials from some of the decks. 

Some weekly highlights from the pop-up camp

• Initial planning meetings have been held in order to coordinate end-of-season plans and activities.
• All sleeping and storage tents continue to stand. Ellie completes regular surveys, and has made some minor repairs to guy lines and poles.
• Both gutters continue to be operational at the Chilean camp.  The barrels fed by these gutters are approximately 85% full. 

Water

We’ve continued to get rainy weather, so the U.S. field camp storage barrels are approximately 91% full.

Camp Life

It was a BIG week at Cape Shirreff, pun intended. For the conclusion of this year’s opening camp “Big Booty” competition, we held our annual weigh-out. Because the food here is so good, and the environment requires eating enormous amounts of food, campers voluntarily join a competition to see who will gain the most weight during a season. This year’s winner took the crown by gaining…..ZERO pounds! First time for everything. Everyone else weighed less than arrival. The “Big Booty” claimed their prize by skipping a dinner cooking rotation and having the rest of the team cook their favorite treats. The menu was: Georgia-style fried chicken, mac n’ cheese, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, smoked salmon, carrot cake, and vanilla ice cream for dessert!

The science team had a couple of game nights with the construction folks over the in the new galley building, including Cranium and “Killer Uno” (it’s not for the faint of heart!). 

The science team continued the rotation of having construction team members join us on science rounds and other hikes. This culminated in a Cape-wide hike that included everyone on both science and construction teams – it was an exciting tour and we had appearances by all of our study subjects including penguins, terns, shags, and leopard seals!

It’s worth taking a second to reflect on the easy and hilarious camaraderie between the construction and science teams. Both have been working long and hard with few breaks on complex projects in an unforgiving place…and yet, every encounter we have is filled with wonder, appreciation, and/or a joke. We’re all mighty fortunate to be working with such an incredible group of humans!

Situation Report #10

Personnel Update

We waved farewell to most of the construction crew and several NOAA personnel this week. Zodiac operations on January 31^st removed all trash accumulated at camp to date, as well as several loads of demolition materials from the old camp decking.

 

 

At 10:30 a.m. on February 1^st, Zodiacs ferried eleven personnel to the M/V Nansen to begin their journey home. We thank George, Doug, David, Shaggy, Rick, Sam, Geoff, Bo, Fili, Dre, and Rene for their hard work, good humor, and perseverance. Safe travels, friends. 

 

Science Activities

Pinnipeds

We said goodbye (for now) to our fearless Pinniped Program PI, Dr. Douglas Krause. We will do our best to follow his lead in reciting obscure lines from movies while resighting all of the pinnipeds.

Across the twelve fur seal females with pups and working (and in range) micro-VHF transmitters, the average trip length for the first six trips to sea was 3.4 days (80.9 hours).

We captured one more fur seal attendance study female to recover her instrument and take samples. Two more instrument recoveries remain!

During our weekly phocid census survey on February 3^rd, we counted 221 elephant seals, 19 Weddell seals, and 6 leopard seals. The elephant seal count is decreasing as the waves of molting adult females decrease, while the leopard seal count is the lowest of recent seasons for this time of year.

We determined sex and collected DNA samples from one fur seal pup of a tagged female.

We collected ten scats during our sixth week of scat collection to determine diet composition for breeding fur seal females. We had our first scat composed entirely of fish this week, while all others appeared to have some krill.

We tagged and sampled DNA from one juvenile female leopard seal.

Seabirds

Our week began by banding 44 gentoo penguin chicks at the east side colonies. Bands were distributed evenly among colonies relative to census counts. The following day, we finished gentoo chick banding after catching 56 more chicks at the west side colonies. 

After bidding Doug, David, and most of the construction crew farewell on February 1^st, we hiked out to check on all of our known skua territories. Three more chicks were deceased.

The last of our known age birds crèched in the west side colonies on February 3^rd. Only five more study nests remain at the east side colonies. The majority of the chinstrap penguin chicks have crèched.

Seven cameras for our gentoo nest monitoring studies were programmed, set up, and deployed at their designated locations. The cameras are taking periodic photos and ready for next season’s cohort of penguins.

On February 5^th, we headed out to Punta Oeste for the second time this year to check on the two known skua nests that were found at the beginning of the season. One of the nests failed; however, the other nest had a very large and healthy chick running around. We were able to successfully band the chick and enjoy the long hike with the team.

Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS)

This week the team completed its weekly build site monitoring flight on January 31^st, and obtained some final video footage of the new berthing and galley buildings.

Weather

Option 1: 

Wind speed average was 14.1 mph with occasional gusts of 41 mph. Winds have been predominantly from the west 76.5% of the time and from the north 17% of the time. The temperature reached a high of 5.1^oC and a low of 0.9^oC (average of 3^oC). We received 0.35 inches of precipitation and are not recording solar radiation.

Option 2:

Scene: As the camera opens the scene, we see Sergio sitting on what appears to be the top bunk of a fancy chateau. He is wearing color coordinating pajamas with warm socks that appear to have unicorn print on them. He looks up from his book, The Wolverine Way, to greet the camera and places the book down next to him as he slides over to the built-in ladder to climb down.

Enter Sergio: Hello and welcome back to another edition of last week’s weather with your favorite weather historian. As you can see I am in the newly constructed and almost-ready-for-service berthing. I am reporting this week’s weather history from the section of the building known as the junior suite (climbs down off the bunk bed and puts on his cozy yet chic slippers). Hahaha as you might have guessed I have indeed claimed the top bunk (smiles sheepishly at the camera). From here we can see all the weather happenings out of these large beautiful windows meant to let in the sun to warm the building. Speaking of warmth, we experienced another warm week with a high of 5.1^oC, a low of 0.9^oC and a weekly average of 3^oC. I sure am glad I’m not one of those fur seals right now because they look like they are hotter than me. Well, not hotter than me (giggles and blushes ever so slightly). What’s not hot are those winds blowing in at 14 mph with max gusts of 41 mph which, to be honest, I don’t know when those 41 mph winds happened because this weather historian remembers differently. I wouldn’t be a weather historian otherwise. Alas the weather station has made a fool of us again. The westerly winds once again dominate the skies, blowing at us 76.5% of the time while the northern winds scraped by 17% of the time. The other winds…well let’s just say they’re no longer….current….hahaha. With the drop in winds and the rise in temperature you would expect that we would have less precipitation. Well you’d be correct because the weather station “tells us” that we only had 0.35 inches of precipitation last week and this weather historian will have to agree. 

As we get ready to wrap up our time here I will take advantage and wrap myself up in this cozy blanket and take a nap in this swanky new building. Hahaha back to you at the La Jolla Station!

Camp Maintenance and Replacement

Full details on Berthing and Galley progress made prior to the team’s departure are available in the construction situation report. Suffice to say, the Galley successfully hosted a celebration for 19 before the departure of the construction crew.

Four personnel from the construction team (Ellie Mango, Will Murray, Cody Van Holland, and Kristina Van Holland) remained in camp to break down the pop-up camp, finish detail work in Berthing and Galley, and continue demolition of main camp structures and the bird blind near the penguin colonies. 

In the main camp, initial testing of bunk spaces revealed some squeaky wood, so field fixes have been implemented and final solutions are being considered. A “thunderous” reverberation caused by loose belly cladding has also been remedied. Preparations for laying floor tiles in Berthing and Galley spaces were initiated. 

Image

Demolition of the bird blind began in earnest this week. The roof and attic were found in good condition, but the walls and floors were mold-ridden, soggy sponges. Undeterred, by Sunday afternoon the demo crew had removed all roofing, interior spaces, interior walls, ceilings, and insulation. At present, only a windowless shell of the blind remains. All demo material has been packaged in small bundles for hand-carried removal from the island and is temporarily stored under the existing decking. We continue the process of backpacking the large, but light, bags of foam insulation back to main camp for safe storage and removal from the island at close. We estimate another two days of work will be required to fully demolish the remaining structure. 

In the old camp, we continue efforts to identify excess materials that can be removed from camp. Attic clearing has identified the oft-neglected metal detector with an ergonomic arm holster, and a spare paper copier that boasts enhanced speeds of up to 4 copies per minute. Neither of these historical artifacts burden the attic rafters any more. 

Some weekly highlights from the pop-up camp: 

• A run of good weather over the weekend allowed significant progress on the breakdown of the pop-up camp. Seven Polar Pyramid tents and one Artic Oven are dry and stored for the winter. Still standing are 2 Arctic Ovens, 1 WeatherHaven, 1 Polar Pyramid, and 4 mountain tents. An inventory of U.S. Antarctic Program gear on loan for the duration of the construction project has also been started. 

Water

Wet, rainy weather continues to fill the rain barrels, to the joy of all those in dire need of showers. Our storage barrels are approximately full.

Camp Life

With the departure of the main Bespoke construction crew and several NOAA personnel, we integrated the remaining four personnel into the daily operations of the main camp. The NOAA crew eagerly vacated the old bunks of the main hut in favor of those in Berthing. This move allowed us to close the kitchen at Chez Rene (Little Chile), move all dining to the main camp, and provide a much-needed common space in the main hut that is available for all at any time. Comradery abounds and the choreography of setting and clearing tables has been nominated for a Tony Award.