Christmas in Antarctica!

Just signed up for a month of underwater exploration in Antarctica spanning Christmas and New Years. With its unnamed invertebrates, below freezing temperatures, and carnivorous seals that stretch the length of a mid-size car, our earth's most southern continent is a place of wondrous finds.

Swimming amidst grounded icebergs and penguins while losing sensation in your lips from the 29F/-1.6C water is the kind of diving that challenges the mind, body and whatever other ingredients make us human.

For laughs, I have included a link of some hijinks Patrick Gilmore and I got into when exploring the islands and channels of the Antarctic Peninsula aboard the National Geographic Explorer.

Penguins: High Def vs. Standard Def

As well as the recent article from scientist Skye Moret using my underwater images to compare the color differences between what is above and below the waters off the white continent.

In Living Color: Antarctica's Vibrant Wildlife Under the Sea

In Living Color: Antarctica's Vibrant Wildlife Under the Sea

Mostly when Antarctica is mentioned, the first color one thinks of is white. An easy conclusion to reach given that the majority of the continent is thickly covered in ice, but a recent collaborative experiment between scientist Skye Moret and I has yielded far more colorful results.

In Living Color: Antarctica's Vibrant Wildlife Under the Sea

Asking for 50 of my most boldly colored dive images from the two months I spent exploring the Southern Ocean earlier this year, she then paired them against 50 of her own images from above the water to see what might be realized when comparing the two worlds.

Devising a way to represent the information in the most compelling manner, Skye crafted a pixellated color bar to represent the variance in each image individually. Fascinating in their own right, simply because we spend so little time dwelling on the inhabitants of our most southern continent, the color bars take on a whole new appearance when placed together.

In Living Color: Antarctica's Vibrant Wildlife Under the Sea

Published by The Ground Truth Project at Medium, Skye writes of her time aboard research vessels in the Southern Ocean and how such a project came to form in her mind.

Check out the recent article in the Boston Globe about Skye's work: Teaching Scientists How to Visualize Their Data

Also not to be missed her website where science and a designer's imagination meet: Skye Moret

In Living Color: Antarctica's Vibrant Wildlife Under the Sea

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Penguin Colony Lifecycle on the Antarctic Peninsula.

After a two day crossing of the Drake Passage, the National Geographic Explorer steered a course toward the penguin colonies upon Brown Bluff. Being the northernmost tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, it is a known location for penguin colonies.

Waiting for the austral summer to commence, the penguins know exactly when to come to ground to begin preparations. As the ice clears, moss and lichen begin to show their colors once again.

Here Adélie penguins gather in great numbers and choose to nest in close quarters. This can make nest building a bit of a competitive sport.

Choosing which beach rocks to build with is important and competition is everywhere.

Neighbors are not to be trusted, often stealing a rock away when someone is not looking.

But there is satisfaction when finding a mate who can help with the work load.

Once the chicks are hatched they are still in need of the parents warmth and protection.

And of course, the free meals that they provide.

This Brown Skua is one of the many predators that a penguin colony must endure. Patiently waiting at the edge of the colony, it seeks out those who stray too far from their parents' protection.

Unattended eggs also make a meal. Trading a life so that another may go on. As gruesome as this may seem, it is a necessary factor in maintaining the equilibrium of the colony's population.

The cold climate can preserve remains. Telling the story of survival in a landscape riddled with dangers.

And once the breeding season has run its course and the chicks are grown, it is back to the waters of the Southern Ocean to seek food and furtherance for these hearty, flightless birds.

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