Around Palmer Station, we use a small boat to search the area for crabeater seals. Along the way we stumble upon a variety of interesting wildlife. Today we followed up on our crabeater seal friend from yesterday to see how she was doing. So far, she seems to be doing okay.

We came upon a group of gentoo penguins that had returned from a foraging trip. Unlike the more numerous Adelie penguins, gentoo penguins stay in the general area after the breeding season. That's why you can generally see gentoo penguins coming ashore to rest after a feeding trip. This gentoo just emerged from the water, and then waddles up the beach to join his buddies on the snow, where Dave was watching them and taking some pictures.

Its always fun to see an old friend, the elephant seal. Many of us on this project have worked on elephant seals for many years. However, I had to admit these big guys are pretty impressive and appear quite a bit larger than the northern elephant seals we get at the Año Nuevo Island rookery just north of our campus at University of California, Santa Cruz. These guys were hauled out to molt. Its hard to see in this compressed image, but the hair and skin just falls off in big sheets. Dave's in the photo above to provide perspective on how large these guys are.