Diving at Fitzroy and a flat tire on our 4WD (Feb. 2; Frithjof)

 Today we headed to Fitzroy, a picturesque, historic settlement in East Falkland – which promised an easily accessible shore for a dive. On the way, we were met by Sarah Lee in her Landrover, who (together with her husband Simon) had already enthusiastically contributed to the Painted Shrimp Expedition to Ascension Island last summer. As we arrived in Fitzroy, Sarah suddenly asked us, ”is there something wrong with your rear tire?” Indeed, it was hissing and flattening dramatically fast… a pointed screw sticking right in it was the cause!! This was a problem in progress, but we decided to leave its resolution until after the diving.

Fitzroy is another place in the Falklands drenched in history. It is named after Robert Fitzroy, Captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin’s epic voyage (which included 2 visits to the Falklands). On June 8, 1982, Fitzroy was the site of the single largest loss of life for the British forces when their supply ships RFA Sir Galahad and RFA Sir Tristram, loaded with ammunitions, were bombed by the Argentine air force, killing 56. The shore overlooking the cove which was to be our dive site has several memorials which are often visited by veterans of these dramatic events.

Sarah and I readied our dive kit and got into the water. After yesterday’s gale, visibility was very poor. We had 2 rather shallow dives, totalling almost 1 hr, but we managed to collect 24 species including what we think may be a new record of a pathogenic brown alga on the kelp Lessonia - and we got a number of reasonably good underwater photos, all close-up of course.  A particularly memorable moment was when we surfaced beneath a cliff with a cormorant colony right above us at the end of the 2^nd dive. In summary, another great day of diving in the Falklands’ cold waters! Sarah, you were great!

Then came the more difficult issue – getting our car back on the road for getting back to Stanley… None of the 4 of us had ever changed a tire before, and the jack included with the vehicle turned out to be a useless toy. We were lucky to be in a settlement  - one most helpful inhabitant came with a proper jack for farm vehicles, jacked up our Mitsubishi Pajero, and we got the flattened tire off in less than 5 min. The car once crashed off the jack before we got the spare tire on (never end up underneath a jacked up vehicle…) – only to discover that the rental car agency had given us a vehicle with a flat spare tire and a defect suspension of the rear axis…!!! “We also have the technology to sort that out!” said that friendly Fitzroy resident and took us to his utility shed where he had an inflator (he still showed us his current construction project – a 7 kW wind turbine, which was to power and heat his home, replacing electricity at £ 0.70 / kWh from the communal settlement generator and lots of fuel oil). Unthinkable if we had been on one of the roads we had been driving over the last week, somewhere in the middle of the Falkland Camp (as the outback or countryside is called here), we might have spent a day or a night waiting for help – most of the islands’ land surface outside Stanley is extremely sparsely populated! We crept back to Stanley, to be met half-way by 2 guys from the rental car agency.

Another very busy afternoon and evening in the lab at SAERI followed, concluded by writing this blog. We are planning another great dive with Sarah next weekend – Sunday.

 

Sarah and Frithjof in the water 

 Giant kelp Macrocystis at Fitzroy

 Fitzroy Memorial

 

Our flat tire at Fitzroy 

 Fitzroy

 Fitzroy

 Fitzroy

 Fitzroy

Falkland Island girl

Falkland Islands Museum & National Trust (04/02/2013, Alexandra)

The very stormy weather with gale force winds today didn’t allow us to conduct any seashore- or snorkelling based fieldwork around the Falklands today. After checking out Gypsy Cove with its penguin colony east of Stanley and having difficulties in not literally being blown off our feet by the gale, we visited the Falkland Islands Museum & National Trust at Stanley. This is an interesting little museum that presents Maritime History, the Falklands War, Natural History and a large photographic collection. A very nice museum with great exhibits and very interesting collections!

 The image shows Alexandra with a miniature of Discovery, the first British Ship that explored Antarctica (The real ship is a ship-museum at Dundee, Scotland).

It’s now evening, we are now back to SAERI, working on our specimens and helping Pieter to pack. We had a nice little farewell party at Kay’s. He will be flying back to the UK tomorrow, with a first batch of materials in his baggage.

 

At Kay's B&B in Stanley after a lovely farewell dinner for Pieter (who will be flying back to Europe tomorrow): From the right Matt, Kay, Aldo, Frithjof, Pieter and Alexandra

Ο Σταύρος του Νότου και τα μεγαλύτερα φύκη του κόσμου (Feb. 3; Frithjof) The Southern Cross and the largest algae in the World (Feb. 3, Frithjof)

Αυτή τη νύχτα, είχαμε μια φανταστική ξαστεριά. Τόσο μακρυά από το περισσότερο πληθυσμό του κόσμου, τ’αστέρια και ο γαλαξίας μας εμφανίζονται πολύ καθαρά – πολύ σπάνιο στην Ευρώπη μας! Είδα το Σταύρο του Νότου και θυμήθηκα το τραγούδι του μεγάλου Καββαδία.

The next morning we went scuba diving with Stevie Cartwright, Paul Brewin, Sarah Lee and Simon Browning of the Falklands Shallow Marine Surveys Group (SMSG) – our friends from the Painted Shrimp Expedition to Ascension Island in September last year. Stevie took us to Port William north of Stanley Harbour – a coastline with a splendid giant kelp forest and close to Beatrice Cove, where I had a marvellous dive in December 2010 (when I met a pod of Comerson’s dolphins and a southern sea lion – plus a new species record  for the Falklands, Syringoderma australe, all in one dive). Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is the largest alga in the World. Up to at least 60 m long, it can grow up to around 30 cm per day!! Not surprisingly, it occurs in impressive forest-like communities on the Pacific coast of North and South America as well as the sub-Antarctic region. 

 Diving in giant kelp, with patches of light coming in through small gaps in the canopy, gives me a feeling similar to that of being in a tall cathedral – adding to this the feeling of weightlessness in neutral buoyancy makes for a very special experience.

Once we moored the boat, with Simon and Sarah already under water and Alexandra, Paul, Steve and me on the boat, suddenly again a pod of Comerson’s dolphins showed up, just around 3 m in front of us – but they didn’t stay around this time. Other company for us were Magellanic penguins and imperial cormorants. Finally, Paul and I readied our scuba equipment and went in. The experience of diving in giant kelp was once more fantastic, with many collections made and photos taken. How incredibly lucky we were to be here!

Getting back out, we could not stay around very long since gale force winds were coming up fast, and we headed back to Stanley.

As usual, a busy night in our improvised lab at SAERI followed!

 Giant kelp forest

 Sea shells on Lessonia

 Lessonia forest

Excursion to Rincon Grande and Mt. Kent Farm (Feb. 2; Frithjof)

Another excursion to the scenic north of East Falkland – this time to the eastern shore of the narrows at the exit of Port Salvador. The farm there is called Rincon Grande (“large corner” or “great spot”, truly a very fitting place name). A historic, wooden farm house, now empty, greeted us above our snorkelling site. Probably it is haunted, I remarked, while Pieter remarked that it looked like the kind of place in the Wild West where some guys with guns pointed at us would be sitting on the roof…  jokes aside, the snorkelling was great, with a good number of new specimens. I stayed in my dry suit (which had once more taken in water) while we drove to the next study site at Port Louis – which had also been the site of the 18^th century French settlement in the Falklands (leading to the name “Iles Malouines” and later “Malvinas”, after the settlers home town of St. Malo) which had been founded there in parallel (unknowingly!) to the British settlement at Port Egmont on Saunders Island. This site was not to rewarding – after a quick dip in the icy waters, we drove on to nearby Mt. Kent Farm, where snorkelling off the pier looked very promising. Indeed it was!! After warming up at Kay’s B&B in Stanley, we then spent the remainder of the afternoon working on our many samples. This Saturday night was to be our first evening off work for the week – we had an invitation by Sasha Arkhipkin and his wife Zhanna for a barbecue in their beautiful new house overlooking Stanley Harbour and the narrows towards Port William. A very beautiful summer evening indeed, with only the icy wind reminding us of where we actually were! And a great get-together with our various friends and colleagues in the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department and SAERI.

Excursion to San Carlos and Saladero (Feb. 1, Frithjof)

Today we undertook the long drive on the gravel and dirt road from Stanley to San Carlos on the west side of East Falkland. Once more, the events of 1982 accompanied our trip. On the roadside in the hills just west of Stanley – where probably the most intense fighting had occurred -, we came across the wrecks of 2 Argentine helicopters, shot down by British jets. Blue Beach was the site of the first landing of active British forces during the liberation of the islands in May 1982. A small museum and the British war cemetery bear testimony to those events.  From here, the Royal Marines set out for their epic hike or “yomp” towards Stanley, each of them carrying around 50 kg over more than 80 km through pretty rough terrain. There were no roads those days!

The land around Blue Beach / San Carlos is now owned by Hew Gierson, originally from Connel (Argyll, Scotland) – which had been my home in Scotland from 2006-2011 – but now a long-term resident in the Falklands and owner of a large farm with > 5000 sheep. I did not miss the occasion for a brief, but very interesting meeting with him.

The bay literally beneath the cemetery was today’s sampling site – Aldo and I had made some very rewarding collections here exactly 2 years earlier. I spent around an hour snorkelling, again collecting a large number of specimens, and some good underwater photography.

We then drove towards Goose Green, had a much-needed lunch of cheesy chips, burgers and coffee in the legendary Goose Green Galley Café (with lots of historical items relating to 1982 on the walls), before exploring to another potential sampling site at Saladero (we were too late in the day for a more detailed survey, but we intend to come back over the next week, possibly in connection with our trip to the West Island).

 

A sea lion at Stanley Harbour!

Ado Asensi and Alexandra Mystikou signing the visitors book at the "San Carlos Museum"

 

A historic place, The Galley Cafe at Goose Green

 

The Galley Cafe, Goose Green