Basler flight!

We awoke on October 31, 2018 (Halloween day!) to fantastic news: our 1000-mile survey flight to five separate emperor penguin colonies was a go! We excitedly gathered our extreme cold weather gear (which we’re required to wear on any Antarctic flight operations), ate a hearty breakfast, and hopped in a 7:15 AM shuttle to the airfield. McMurdo’s Phoenix airfield is located on the Ross Ice Shelf, about a 20 minute drive from the station.

The crew and the team!

Our flight plan for the day was:
1) from McMurdo, fly over Erebus Bay to Beaufort Island - the smallest emperor penguin colony in our study;
2) from there, head north to Franklin Island, a scenic horseshoe-shaped island encircling a medium sized emperor penguin colony;
3) continue north to the large Cape Washington colony;
4) fly from Cape Washington to Coulman Island – the location of the world’s largest emperor penguin colony;
5) complete our northward journey at Cape Roget, the location of a small emperor penguin colony along the northern coast of the Ross Sea.
6) Return to several of the colonies along our route back to McMurdo to get a second series of images.

Beaufort Island - ACA #2019-006

At each colony we took several looping passes in the airplane, allowing us several attempts to get “perfect” photos from which we can accurately count penguins. Amazingly, the weather conditions were perfect all day.

Franklin Island - ACA #2019-006

Franklin Island - ACA #2019-006

Franklin Island - ACA #2019-006

Franklin Island - ACA #2019-006

Our 9-hour flight took us over hundreds of miles of undulating sea ice, around permanent ice shelves that sink hundreds of meters into the ocean, and past innumerable 1500-foot cliffs that drop straight into the sea ice. Amazingly, we even flew past cliffs that were packed with tens of thousands of daring Adélie penguins that somehow managed to scramble 1000 feet up a rock wall!

Adélie penguins on the cliff of Franklin Island - ACA #2019-006

Adélie penguins on the cliff of Franklin Island - ACA #2019-006

Cape Washington - ACA #2019-006

Cape Washington - ACA #2019-006

Coulman Island - ACA #2019-006

We arrived back at McMurdo just before dinnertime, excited to sort through the thousands of stunning images we collected throughout the day. In only a few short weeks, we’ll have counted every single emperor penguin in each of the Ross Sea colonies – which will get us one step closer to providing an estimate of their global population size.

Cape Roget - ACA #2019-006

Cape Roget - ACA #2019-006