Antarctic Video of Oceanites Work

Elise Larson counting Adelie Penguins on the Fish Islands

Last November I traveled to Antarctica with Sally Wiggens, a television news anchor from WTAE in Pittsburgh. Earlier this spring Sally produced a series of video pieces on her trip and a lot of her piece featured the work that Oceanites is doing. If you would like to see the series, you can check it out here. (Make sure you watch to the end of Part 1, my favorite part).

This reminds me I still have a few Antarctic posts to deliver. I will have to make sure I get them done before I head back again (crossed fingers).


Sally Wiggens taking video on the Antarctic Peninsula

Oceanites Videos

My friend and boss, Ron Naveen, the founder of Oceanites, has recently posted a series of videos on YouTube. Below is a good overview of penguins.



and another with my friend Steve Forrest at Brown Bluff.

Opus isn't gone

Despite many recent reports to the contrary, Berke Breathed's Opus is has not completely disappeared into Goodnight Moon. I recently found out that he is now a Dean at The Antarctic University! Check it out here (wait a bit when you get to the site for Opus to show up and then follow the links to the coursework).
This is the latest educational effort by Oceanites, the non-profit group I work for when I am in Antarctica. Ron Naveen, president and founder of Oceanites, has arranged for Opus to present a number of educational multimedia presentations to help people learn more about penguins, Antarctica, and global climate change. Currently, the only lesson available is Penguins 101, but the others are in the works. The presentation needs a fairly fast connection to work well, but it is a great introduction to penguins and teachers may find it a good resource to present to students if they are doing a penguin or Antarctic theme for lessons.



Another great addition to the Oceanites website is the ability for anyone interesting in supporting Oceanites to donate via the website (the lower right corner of the Oceanites homepage). Please consider a donation if you can.
A couple of articles about Oceanites can be found here from the Antarctic Sun and here from Mother Jones magazine.

Oceanites

The non-profit group Oceanites is in the news. The latest issue of The Antarctic Sun has a good article on the Antarctic Site Inventory work conducted by Oceanites and describes the program and the overall results of the work we have been doing.
I am in the process of working on determining if I will be able to help out with the field work this year and so far things are looking good for a return trip to The Ice.

Penguin Interlude

I figured it was time to touch on the "Ice" portion of the Prairie Ice blog since the temperatures this weekend will climb above the century mark making me wish for cooler weather and Antarctic climes. On top of that, my reasons for thinking of travels south have recently included lining up my next visit, a couple of penguin talks, and how could I not mention the giant penguin fossils discovered in Peru. It looks like once again this year I will be spending a couple of weeks working for Oceanites, conducting inventories of Antarctic life on the Antarctic Peninsula. This time I am going in November and will see the beginning of the penguin breeding season with clean birds on nests (which I think are much easier to count) compared to the relative chaos and mess of chicks and a seasons worth of processed krill. I am also leading a short Lindblad Expeditions trip into Torres Del Paine National Park prior to the Antarctic cruise. I am really excited about this trip as it has been many years since I was south for the austral spring and I have never been able to bird in Chile in November since all of my trips previously began in October. I am looking forward to seeing the differences in the seabirds in the Drake Passage as well as in Chile from my more recent trips in December and January.

Now that my busy field season has nearly come to the end of the rush, I hope to get back to more posts here.