The discovery of an unknown penguin colony took place in January 2024. The Viking expedition ship Viking Octantis visited the three-mile-long Astrolabe Island in Bransfield Strait. Trinity Peninsula In Antarctica.
On Viking's cruise ships, there is always a research team consisting of 36 participants from various scientific institutions with which the ship company collaborates. In addition to researching Arctic and marine conditions, they contribute by imparting knowledge to cruise guests.
Astrolabe Island has long been home to a colony of this penguin species, which got its name from a black stripe down its beak.
It had not been studied since 1987 and was the real target of scientists from Oceanides, Viking's scientific partner.
Then Diaz discovered a previously unknown colony of penguins on the rock.
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Viking Octantis in Antarctica. Photo: Viking
Scientific discovery
The Antarctic Penguin Observatory Field Research Unit conducted a visual and thermal aerial survey.
The fieldwork documented the first survey in nearly 40 years of a known chinstrap penguin colony on Astrolabe Island and discovered a new colony on Diaz Rock in the process.
Oceanites will share more details from the study in a scientific article to follow.
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– Today's announcement on Viking Octantis and her identical sister ship Viking Polaris exemplifies Viking's commitment to ensuring that every cruise voyage offers opportunities for meaningful scientific discovery, says the chairman. Dorstein Hagen in a press release.
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Participants on Viking's cruise ships get first-hand knowledge of Antarctica – as here on Viking Octantis, delivered by the ship's leading scientists. Photo: Viking
Phantom Jellyfish
The findings come a year after Viking published its first scientific paper in Polar Research, the scientific journal of the Norwegian Polar Institute, following the research team's encounter with rare giant phantom jellyfish in Antarctica.
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– As our third season in Antarctica gets underway, we are delighted to have supported another significant scientific development that offers an opportunity to further understand the region, says Hagen.
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Astrolabe Island with its “Dragon's Teeth”. (License: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Photo: Frgreb / Wikipedia
Viking's cruise ship has its own scientific laboratory and close partnerships with recognized academic institutions, including the Norwegian Polar Institute and the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA).
During each trip, visiting researchers from partner institutions are part of an interdisciplinary team of 36 people.
This team of experts guides guests through meaningful scientific research, provides guidance and explanations during shore excursions and delivers world-class lectures.
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Viking Octantis was carrying scientists studying penguins when he discovered a previously unknown colony. Photo: Viking
Leading penguin researchers
Oceanites, an American non-profit field research unit, has been at the forefront of Antarctic penguin monitoring for more than 30 years.
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As scientific partners, Viking supports Oceanites' fieldwork, mobilizes teams of Penguin researchers on their Antarctic expeditions and provides thermal cameras.
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– The Antarctic Peninsula is well traveled and explored, and it's not often that we discover a new penguin colony. Our collaboration with Viking opened a new opportunity to count chinstrap penguins on Astrolabe Island for the first time since the 1980s, but it also allowed us to discover and map a previously unknown colony of chinstrap penguins. This work will allow us to better understand how Antarctic penguin population dynamics are changing in a changing world, says Grant Humphreys, director of science at Oceanides, in a press release.
– With researchers from our partner institutions like Oceanites, we can conduct real, meaningful research in the regions. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Oceanites and other scientific partners.
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