Hopefully we'll find birds and whales there. We encountered ice that was packed tightly. The plan was to have the whale group head out in a Zodiac to search for whales to biopsy, and the bird group, also in a Zodiac, to look for birds to study stomach contents. The ice was packed too tightly for Zodiac operations. We changed course and headed to the edge of the ice.
Flexibility is a necessity when the weather is a determining factor.
I joined Ari Friedlaender, Catherine Berchok, Aparna Sreenivasan, and Cabell Davis looking for whales. The sun rose today at 1130 hours and set at 1400 hours. That's not a lot of time to spend on the water. We didn't see any whales, but we saw some crabeater seals and were followed for about five minutes by a lone leopard seal. I've been told that the leopard seal will actually bite a Zodiac.