Today is International Wild life day. A day to be celebrated and a day to contemplate a little. This last week there has been a meeting of the UN concerning ways to safeguard the worlds marine biodiversity and thus the protection of our oceans. Little is known about the outcomes, but today would be the last day of this conference. And this did make me think and my mind wandered back to the voyage with the Tecla from Tenerife to the Falklands and onward from the Falklands to South Georgia and Antarctica.
During the past few months we have been privileged to see the most spectacular wild life, while on board the Tecla. We have seen, Minke, Sei, Fin, Humpback and possibly Blue Whales. We have seen Antarctic Fur Seals, Elephant Seal, Weddel seals, Leopard Seals, Crab eater seals, we have seen Gentoo, Macaroni, Rockhopper, Adelie, Chinstrap, Magellanic and King Penguins! We have seen, Great wanderers, Royal Albatross, we declared the Sooty Albatross our favorite, then we called the Cape Pigeon our favorite, then it was the Snow Petrel and even the Giant Petrel, which is not a pretty bird, has been our favorite. We have seen Commerson dolphins, Peale’s dolphins, Hourglass dolphins, Bottle Nose and Atlantic striped Dolphins and we have found the so called Common Dolphin to be a lot more than just ‘common’.