Goodbye to Seal Beach - 17 January to 23 January

Before I get into the events of this week, I would just like to thank everyone who encouraged (and continue to encourage) me to write this blog, it is quite cathartic. All of you get to read this and find out what is happening with me and it would be quite nice if some of you would occasionally drop me a line (nicholaslemaitre(at)gmail(dot)com) to tell me what is happening in your lives. Lastly, I have a Flickr account where I have uploaded high res versions of some of the photos on this blog. You can access it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/niclemaitre/

Stormy weather at Crane Point, the sea stack on the left was attached to the mainland by an arch that fell down in 1991

Anyway, back to the news. This week has marked the end of our regular trips to Seal Beach to abuse penguins. We made one visit to the Seal Beach colony and to the Tumbledown colony (which was my first visit to the latter) on Monday to count the number of chicks and weigh them.

Juvenile Gough Moorhen, Gallinula comeri, endemic to Gough

Something I should have said right back at the beginning is that all the work we are doing on the Rockhoppers is to determine the reason for the sharp decline in the size of the colonies both here and on Tristan. Very little research has ever been done on the Rocky's (probably because of the smell) and so everything we are doing has little to no precedent.

Subantartic Fur Seal and pup

The seals have been breeding - we saw the first seal pups of this year on Monday - and this has made them even more cranky and aggressive than usual. Michelle, who came with us to help with the chick count, was walking along about five meters below me when I startled a sleeping seal. The seal instead of backing off as they usually do, took flight, launching itself off a two meter high drop and landing virtually on top of Michelle. She just managed to get her stick (we carry heavy wooden poles with us to fend off seals) between the seal and herself before it tried to bite her. It got the stick and not her leg and then slid away. Seal bites are not a minor thing, last week on Marion, one of the researchers was bitten by a seal, had to get twenty eight stitches in her thigh and will be out of action until April. Later this week during a quick visit to check if any of the tagged penguins have returned I was also nearly bitten by a seal that bolted as I walked past it. It just brushed my leg but that is too close for comfort!
Thankfully all the Rocky work is now done until the moult in March.

The rest of the week was given over to the curation of the Rocky samples: basically sorting, cleaning, labeling and packing away all the blood, feather and stomach samples that have been collected since November.
We also sorted out the rope access gear in preparation for starting the Sagina inspections.

Antarctic Tern, Sterna vittata tristanensis

Sagina procumbens, or Procumbent Pearlwort is a small plant, thought to have been introduced to Gough from Marion island, where it is extremely invasive. It occurs on a stretch of cliffs about 400 meters in length, close to the base. We have to abseil down the cliffs looking for signs of it, and when we find it, remove the plants and the surrounding soil before spraying the area with herbicide.

Sooty Albatross adult, Phoebetria fusca, gorgeous birds with the most awful screech/scream of a call

Ross on rope

[There is going to be gear junkie jargon in the next bit so feel free to skip it if you like] The rope access work is harder than it looks, we carry about twenty kilograms of equipment and ascending the rope is not fun with so much weight on your harness. Also, the bean counters at the RSPB, who know nothing about rope access, have bought the cheapest possible work harnesses made by Singing Rock. The harnesses are poor copies of Petzl Navahos, while they conform to the same specifications but are much cheaper and less comfortable and they only have two gear loops which is very frustrating. The bean counters obviously have a list of equipment to buy each year which is why we have eight Stops, three I'Ds and two GriGris, they don't understand that desenders don't wear out... If they didn't buy new descenders each year then they would be able to save enough money to buy decent harnesses. We use Croll ascenders but have about ten chest harnesses, that are designed to keep you upright in the event of a fall (since we are constantly hanging on the ropes, this is not a risk) and are not designed to be used with a Croll and only three Petzl Securs which are designed to keep a Croll in the correct position. Go figure...

All the gear we carry during the rope access work. Top left: 2x30m of 11mm static. Top right: Herbicide sprayer, bottle to put Sagina plants in, trowel and scraper to remove plants. Bottom left: harness and 3 cowstails. Bottom right: Etrier, 2 slings, 2 shunts, I'D, 2 knives, Croll, chest harness (replaced by Petzl Secur now), 2 prussiks, radio, 8 carabiners, 3 maillons, a jumar and a Petzl Vertex helmet

The nice thing about starting the rope access stuff (which is the actual reason I was employed) is that for the first time I actually know what is going on. Also, while descending we have to remove any loose rocks and earth that might be dislodged by our ropes when we are below them. Basically it is a licence to drop large rocks down a cliff into the sea, which is great fun. My hips have taken a beating from the harness and my arms aren't used to jumaring but I will gradually harden up as the work continues.

Rock clearing

That is it for this week, have a great week and thanks for being such faithful readers. Special thanks to those who have mailed me to let me know what is happening in your lives, those of you who haven't, do drop me a line please. It is great to hear that there is still a world out there...