Camp Byers

@ValentínCarrera, Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands.

How many miles does a Penguin need to swim in icy waters to find food? To what depth does it need to dive to survive? Keep a figure in mind and then we will see if it is correct. All animal species seem to move incessantly in search of food. We have also traveled 13,000 km to work in this extreme latitude where nothing is easily done.
How much does a beer cost? In a supermarket, a few cents; in Antarctica it is priceless. Every little thing that arrives here, from a band-aid to the most sophisticated radar system, implies a great economic effort, but above all, a logistical and human one. In 1789, when the illustrious naval officer Malaspina organized the first genuine Spanish scientific expedition, at a time when the French revolution started in the Bastille, he ordered his scientific instruments from teams in London and Paris. His shopping list is worthy of Jules Verne: two hygrometers, a hydrometer, a scuba diving suite made of cork, a pressometer, an eudiometer, two air guns, and a collection of botanical atlas which would be the envy of naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. On this trip aboard the research vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa, we bring on board all that multiplied by thousand.

The South Bay of Livingston Island has welcomed us with sunny weather, hardly any wind and golden sunsets. This placid weather facilitates the heavy task of loading and unloading, by the crew and the scientific team, of the cargo we brought aboard the research vessel. But this task is as extreme as that of the penguins and there is no margin for error if we want to survive.

I have seen the art of loading and unloading: pallets come and go out in reverse order, time is short, and manoeuvring is dangerous. It seems to me that slings will break when the crane hoists a multi-ton fuel tank and lowers it carefully on the illuminated barge. In order to finish the building of the new base Juan Carlos I, which has been under construction for over 10 years, we need everything: from cement, pipes, panels, and lights, to mattresses and refrigerators, and everything has to be brought from a harbour: Vigo, Cartagena, Punta Arenas, and Ushuaia.

Any mistake and the washer machine or the laboratory table would fall hopelessly into this sea of ice. But the real tragedy would be that one of the team members would fall into the icy sea. In order to go out, we need to fit, rather than dress, a heavy and rigid waterproof suit, we call them the Teletubbies, because we look like the ones on the children’s TV, and we walk like penguins too.
Ecological Sentinels
In order to visit a colony of penguins, I went to the island with two well-known ornithologists whose work focuses on ecology. Andrés Barbos from Madrid in Spain (Museo de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, @barbosaandres). Barbos has spent 20 years studying the physiology of penguins and he has studied mainly two species: the Chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis Antarctica) which has a black chin hairline, and the Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) with its unmistakable yellow beak.

The second ornithologist is the Argentinian Juan F. Masello (from the University of Giessen), an expert in parasitology and ecological behavior. It has been priceless for me to share this experience with them who are like walking encyclopedias. Today these two experts,  are leaving for the International Camp Byers, which is located at the other end of the island, where they will live in complete isolation during the next twenty days.
Barbosa says that” Penguins are the sentinels of the Antarctic ecosystem health. Through the physiology of the penguins, we can study the effects of climate change on a sensitive area like the Antarctic, where larger environmental changes are taking place”.
These creatures, incessantly struggle to obtain food for their offspring, survive and reproduce but in the harshest conditions on the planet. Gentoo penguins swim up to 40 km (more than 90 km in the Falklands) or dive to a depth of 150 meters to find food. Its favorite food is krill, which is a tiny type of shrimp, indigestible for us humans.

But the research goes further: we are talking about a global change: certain parasites, diseases and pollutants are altering the behavior of the penguins and of other species. Both Barbosa and Masello analyzed the presence of these parasites on animals, for example ticks, and how they affect their physiological functions, their immune system response, or their ability to thermoregulate themselves.
You might think that placing a GPS or doing a blood test on a Penguin might not be an easy task. Let me tell you, it is heroic. Barbosa, Masello and the experienced Mountaineer Iñaqui Irastorza are going to have a very special Christmas this year. They are going to live in a small igloo, eating canned food only and at below zero temperatures. They are going to go every day to the penguin colony to see the penguins and catch a few lucky ones who will have GPS devices fitted for a duration of five days. An accelerometer,a depth gauge to register their position in the sea and to mark the areas where they go to find their food, and measure the energy used for these.
These men are doing all of these things while ensuring that no GPS gets lost, because each one costs around €3,000 per unit, and of course also avoiding possible accidents. “In the Antarctic, everything requires a lot of patience” says Barbosa. Of course, Camp patience was how Shackleton and his crew called their camp, which was an iceberg where they survived for one year.

Yesterday I witnessed the preparations of our scientists to hibernate in Camp Byers (or Camp Patience). They practiced how to place a heat patch with Daniel the base physician who tell us: “better not have to use it of course”. “Last year-smiled the physician-I had to apply 40 stitches to the base physician, because she fell on some rocks”.
As if life in Camp Byers wasn’t spartan enough, the “Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic” Treaty requires total environmental care for this land. Nothing can contaminate the area, so the three members of the expedition will have to keep “everything” and I mean everything! All of their waste will be collected for purification and recycling on their return. Dry and cold food, a wet tent, peeing at midnight in a bottle, and any storms that might come their way is the price these three scientist happily pay for the pleasure of being alone in a Penguin Colony and listen to the choir of the Papua Penguins singing, or waking up with the affectionate greeting of an elephant seal moving your tent around.