4 March 2022

#AntarcticLog: A season at Palmer Station

Posted by Shane Hanlon

#AntarcticLog is a series of comics by Karen Romano Young. You can find the originals here.

Palmer Station – Antarctica’s Zenobia Evans shared this photo of the work in progress on the station’s new pier. It will replace the wharf built more than 50 years ago that allowed ships to arrive via Hero Inlet, bringing supplies, station staff, scientists — as well as artists, illustrators, and educators — to these icy shores. 

Courtesy of Zenobia Evans, U.S. Antarctic Program.

The combination of the wharf construction and the pandemic has lowered the population of researchers at the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research Project, so I thought I’d share a few of the highlights from my season at Palmer. 

Palmer is on Anvers Island on the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, a prime location for biology, such as Oregon State University researcher Thomas DesVignes’ study of icefish, aided by fishing from the deck of the Laurence M. Gould. Palmer’s supply ship…

…and Chuck Amsler’s scuba studies of seaweed, along with his team from the University of Alabama Birmingham… 

… and Duke University Marine Laboratory’s drone-assisted research on humpback whales, led by Dave Johnston. 

Karen Romano Young is a writer, artist, deep-sea diver, and polar explorer. Follow her on Twitter & Instagram