ent species such as adelie penguins, crabeater seals (that actually eat
krill), and leopard seals (that eat krill, penguins, other seals, and the
occasional Zodiac bumper) by more adaptable open-water species such
as chinstrap penguins, elephant seals, and fur seals.
After the Schnappers have finished sorting their krill, I take a walk
with Fraser, admiring the ice cliffs of Arthur Harbor and the massive
glacier that curves around and above Palmer Station.
“The Marr glacier used to come within 100 yards of the station,”
Fraser tells me, pointing upslope. “Its melt water was the source of our
fresh water.” Today the Marr is a quarter-mile hike from Palmer across
granite rocks and boulders. Gull-like brown skua birds now splash in
the old melt pond, while the station is forced to use a saltwater intake
pipe and reverse osmosis desalinization to generate its own freshwater.
Periodically the artillery rumble and boom of moving ice alert us to
continued glacial retreat and allow for spectacular views of irregular ice
faces collapsing into the adjacent harbor, setting off a blue pall of ice
crystals and a rolling turquoise wave beneath a newborn scree of
chunky brash ice.
On another day I hike with Fraser past dozens of lazing elephant
seals, before climbing hundreds of feet up the jagged granite and
basalt boulders of Norsel Point, where we are dive-bombed by skuas.
We reach a spectacular mossy overview above Loudwater Cove across
an open channel from the blue ice of the Marr Glacier. Fraser points to
three rugged granite islands that have emerged from below the retreat-
ing glacier in recent years, while we listen to the distant artillery rum-
ble of new calving ice.
“When I was a graduate student we were told climate change
occurs, but you’ll never see the effects in your lifetime. But in the last
25 years I’ve seen tremendous changes. I’ve seen islands like these pop
out from under glaciers, I’ve seen species changing places and land-
scape ecology altered.”
Two weeks later there is a surprise awards ceremony at the regular
Wednesday night science talk in Palmer Station’s rec room. The U.S.
Board of Geographic Names, with a nudge from the National Science
Foundation, has approved the naming of the largest of the three glacier
exposed islands Fraser Island.
162 David Helvarg