A rare event in the Antarctic Peninsula

Sorry for the long break but I have just returned from an expedition to Antarctica.

I will now try to make regular posts during the next month.

One of the most exciting moments of the trip was the sighting of a Ross seal in St Marguerite's Bay near the Antarctic Circle. Ross seals normally live in parts of the continent where ships are unable to penetrate the ice and so they are seldom seem. In any case they do not live on the western side of the peninsula.

What was this seal doing miles away from home across the peninsula? The master of the ship was so excited that he called another ship on the radio and told the master that he was unable to explain to his passengers how rare the sighting was. Here is my picture of the Ross seal and you can see my first selection of pictures from the Antarctic on line Picasaweb or at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/geoffrey.boys