Palmer Station is situated on the southern end of Anvers Island just off the Antarctic Peninsula. Today we were lucky enough to be able to visit this United States research facility, as only a few visits are allowed at the station per year due to the ongoing marine biology studies. The Caledonian Star arrived on a glorious sunny and calm afternoon into Arthur Harbor, and Station Manager Ron Nugent came out to the ship to welcome us. He gave us a slide show about the United States Antarctic Program and the work going on there, and we then divided up into three groups to visit the station, each of us with our personal tour guide who took us around the buildings. While some of us were visiting with the station personnel and enjoying the best brownies in the Antarctic, the other two groups were either visiting the Adelie penguin rookery on nearby Torgerson Island, or were kayaking among the ice floes. Each piece of ice was covered with several crabeater seals, and many more were in the water trying to get up onto the floes. It was kind of a seal version of "king of the mountain" as they all jostled for the most comfortable spot on the icebergs.
I had the pleasure of working at Palmer Station for 4 summers between 1989 and 1993. There were 40 of us working there, including scientists and support people. I was working for Dr. Bill Fraser with the National Science Foundation, and we studied Adelie and chinstrap penguins, brown and south polar skuas, kelp gulls, cormorants, giant petrels and many species of whales and seals. Coming back to visit the station on such an amazing day, watching kayaks cruise among seals and icebergs, seeing my old friends the penguins and to have a chance to visit with my colleagues again was like a dream come true, and so many memories of good friends, good fun and hard work came flooding back.
