National Geographic Endurance moved west today into the relatively milder waters of Falkland Plateau—moving out of the Southern Ocean and into the South Atlantic. Foggy conditions frustrated our sea-watching efforts, but we still saw some humpback whales and hourglass dolphins despite poor visibility. By evening, the fog lifted enough for us to enjoy views of wandering albatross and their smaller cousins, including various petrels.
2/2/2023
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National Geographic Explorer
Cierva Cove and Portal Point
While Zodiac cruising around Cierva Cove today, we met a well-traveled whale. So well-traveled, in fact, that it has been spotted four times near three continents since 2007. How do we know this information? Thanks to a website called Happywhale.com that conglomerates whale photographs. Whales have tail fins, or flukes, that act as individual fingerprints thanks to each whale’s unique scars and color patterns. When all these fluke photos come together on Happywhale.com, the whales can be identified and tracked. After uploading a photograph taken in Cierva Cove today, we discovered that our whale’s ID number is PAN-1172. It was first spotted in Ecuador in 2007. Since then, it has been seen in Colombia, Panama, and, as of today, Antarctica. While viewing PAN-1172, we were visited by a group of “Vikings” delivering hot cocoa. Some weather set in that affected our afternoon plans. Nonetheless, we enjoyed motoring through the Graham Passage on National Geographic Explorer . During the later evening hours, we touched the mainland of continental Antarctica at Portal Point. Our previous landings were on Antarctic islands. We made a quick stop as we had ventured out after dinner to make the jaunt happen.
