Feb 21

Today is February 21, 2009. Today we had a late breakfast. Then we got to empty all the dirt in our backpacks in the mud room – this is because we are now at South Georgia and they don’t want any seeds or insects introduced on the island. Half an hour later Stephanie, who is a whale and seal scientist working on our boat, gave a lecture on seals. She talked mostly about the fur seals, since we were going to see a lot of them that afternoon.

Fur seal babies are mostly black. They are very tiny. The males are very aggressive. Even the pups are. It is really funny because a pup will run up charging you, but when it gets close to you it will run away in the other direction. Fur seals aren’t “true” seals - they are like sea lions because they have little ear flaps and can support their weight on their front flippers. True seals don’t have those little flaps and can’t “walk” on their flippers.

Once lunch was over it was a five-hour ride until we got to South Georgia. On our way there a little bird flew on deck. It was a young diving petrel. It was attracted to the boat’s light last night. One of the workers had just found it. We brought it outside and let it go. It was fun to see.

At five we arrived at Cooper Bay, South Georgia. There were thousands of fur seals there. It was amazing to see so many. My dad and I took a little hike up the mountain. All the little pups would come running down, breath on us, and then run away. It was really funny. If the seals didn’t run off you would clap your hands really loudly and they would run away. They do that because that is the sound that a beach master would make when it was coming by. All the seals knew they weren’t the beach master would run away.

When we got back on the boat we had dinner, then went to sleep. I had a nice refreshing day – it was really good to get off the ship after two long days at sea. Today at South Georgia was amazing. I hope all the days here are like this.

Bye for now,

Emily