A Crabeater Seal laying on a little iceberg. It had been sleeping, and yes, drooling (or something). There is a bird, the sheathbill, which will eat the snot right out of the seals' noses. For real! I took this picture from a "Zodiac" inflatable boat, about 1/4 mile from Palmer Station, near the Antarctic Peninsula.
Palmer is a center for Antarctic marine studies; bird, plant, microbiology, arthropod (krill, what the baleen whales eat) research are the primary activities at the moment, as well as the "LTER" (Long Term Environmental Research) project, looking at the marine environment here over a period of many years.
The Marr Piedmont glacier sits nearly in the station's backyard, and thunderous sounds are often heard as the glacier "calves" chunks of ice into Aurthur Harbor.
Penguins!
Whales!
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