National Geographic: Antarctic Wildlife Adventure Page #4

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The ship's cargo of diesel oil

began to spill.

A Chilean navy ship arrived quickly

to contain the damage,

but it was a month before Argentine

and American crews managed

to seal the wreck.

It had about 250,000 gallons on board.

And they're estimating that

about half of that

It might have been worse if the ship

had carried heavy,

black crude oil instead of diesel fuel

but still scientists worry that

their research will be affected

because the once pristine area

is no longer so pure.

The wreck has gone through a

single Antarctic winter,

but the damage has been very severe.

It's kind of like a beer can

has been totally crushed.

And there use to be two

little copters there.

There's no sign of them at all now,

other than two tires,

and the highly deck is mostly crushed.

And there's no visible signs of

oil leaking out anymore.

Any cleanup operation would be

difficult here.

Indeed, all along the peninsula

it's clear that very often

no one bothers to clean the mess

that is left behind.

The penguins hardly seem to notice

but nevertheless

many environmentalists are concerned

that we may spoil the last really

large wilderness left on earth;

before we begin to understand it.

The Damien II has been at sea for

about a month,

with dozens of stops so far

for penguin surveys.

Now Jerome has set course for

Dream Island,

about half way down the peninsula.

The island has a large colony of the

third species of penguins

the Poncets are counting:

Adelies.

There are remarkable elephant seal

colonies here also,

and for the seals, too

the Antarctic summer is the

season of the young.

Well, it's a bit slippery in all

this muck-especially

where the penguins have been.

I don't want you to fall in that.

They've been fed by their mothers

until they're sort of round

and their mother's go off and

leave them and they have to survive

during the feeding time...

And they lie around on the

beaches in groups.

And they're really sweet...

They're very beautiful to look at

at that stage.

As they get a bit older

they're not so nice.

It doesn't look as if they're

any more chinstraps in this area.

They seem to be confined to that

area back there.

So I think I'll go back...

In the water by the beach

young male seals play at combat.

They are too young now to really

harm one another.

Later, when they develop the droopy

noses that account for the

elephant seals' name,

they will fight seriously for

groups of females.

All along the coast, the Poncets

find sites of earlier explorers,

many of them no longer in use.

This cabin was once a

research station,

but it's been deserted for a long time

Inside, there are copies of letters

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