Article courtesy of Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute.
Stop. Waddle time. HHRI Principal Investigator Kristina Burrack, PhD, along with 122 participants of the year-long women in STEMM leadership program, Homeward Bound, “could not pass go or collect $200.” They trekked across the lands of the Antarctic Peninsula, pausing along the way to wait for any penguin crossings.
Biosecurity measures are vital to prevent the spread of the avian flu. The voyagers could not sit, stand, put anything on the ground, or squat for fear of falling over. They also had to keep a safe distance from the penguins, while wearing special heavy-duty rubber boots as biosecurity measures to prevent the spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as the avian flu or bird flu.
“Avian influenza has also made its way down to Antarctica, unfortunately, and has killed 1000s of penguins. And because seals and other animals often eat penguins, they have been getting infected as well,” said Dr. Burrack.
Burrack’s 2023 cohort, Homeward Bound 8 (HB8), voyaged to the remote wilderness of Antarctica as the final leg of the program, from January 25 to February 14, 2025, to see the devasting effects of climate change firsthand.
It was a mixture of nerves and excitement for Dr. Burrack as the group departed from the southernmost tip of Argentina, Ushuaia. From Ushuaia, the cruise ship, The Island Sky, journeyed across the perilous waters of the Drake’s Passage for two days.
Drake’s Passage is widely regarded as the most dangerous passage on Earth, spanning 600 miles wide and nearly four miles deep, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans from Cape Horn (South America) to the Antarctic Peninsula’s South Shetland Islands. The passage forms part of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, where waves can reach up to 49 feet.
How does Antarctica’s weather impact the rest of the world?
For Dr. Burrack, “the beauty of Antarctica felt unreal, very impossible to describe, either in words or pictures.” However, the impact of climate change can’t be disputed on this continent. The expedition’s tour guide has journeyed to the White Continent 100+ times over 30 years, witnessing the impacts of the climate crisis firsthand. One such impact is rain.
Antarctica is “the highest, driest, windiest, and coldest continent in the world.” It rained several days during the trip, and rain used to be highly unusual. Burrack explained why rain is so bad for the environment. “Baby penguins die if they get wet from rain because … their feathers aren’t waterproof yet. Luckily, when we were there, I think all of the baby penguins were old enough that they wouldn’t have died from the rain.”
It’s more than penguins who are impacted by these unusual weather patterns. The major weather patterns around the world are impacted by the Antarctic and Arctic water currents because that cold water circulates throughout the world.
“When the cold-water currents are not as cold anymore because the sea ice is quickly melting and the glaciers are retreating, then those currents get disrupted; and that’s why we’re having more extreme weather events. It was really interesting learning about the impact of the sea currents on the polar regions and how much they impact weather patterns around the world. That was something I hadn’t appreciated before.”
For these very reasons, the Homeward Bound program has made the decision to no longer return to Antarctica for future cohorts and is instead opting for a safari in the Serengeti of Tanzania in East Africa. Despite strict tourism rules, Antarctica has become a popular tourist destination, with over 100,000 tourists visiting the Antarctica Peninsula region in the 2022-2023 season alone.
“There’s an international treaty that, for instance, the US is a signatory of, and the treaty has very strict rules about how many ships can go down and visit Antarctica in a given year [and] how many passengers can be off ship and on land at any given time. So, we were split up into groups because we needed to follow those guidelines,” explained Dr. Burrack.
The sights and wonders of Antarctica’s Peninsula region
Rigid inflatable boats called Zodiacs are the preferred vehicles for navigating the waters of the Antarctic Ocean.
Rigid inflatable boats called Zodiacs are the preferred vehicles for navigating the waters of the Antarctic Ocean.
Don’t worry, there’s Wi-Fi. However, when you’re on a trip of a lifetime, most people don’t want to be on their cell phones. For those participants that weren’t seasick on The Island Sky, bird is the word. One of the expedition guides is a birder (a person who likes watching and identifying birds in their natural environments) and led a session on the birds of the Drake’s Passage – albatrosses, skuas, and petrels.
Once they arrived, the group boarded little boats called Zodiacs, stopping to sightsee and taking photos, while learning neat factoids along the way. According to Antarctica Guide, “Zodiacs are the vehicles of Antarctica, allowing guests to go ashore and also explore the smaller bays and inlets in search of wildlife. These rigid inflatable boats are incredibly good in all sorts of sea conditions and almost every Antarctic expedition cruise operator runs a fleet of Zodiacs on each trip.”
But the most breathtaking moment for Dr. Burrack during her trip? A humpback whale spotting.
“One of the biggest highlights for me was when a beautiful humpback whale came up to our ship and displayed the awesomeness of that endangered animal. She dove under the ship and then stayed around the ship for about 10-15 minutes, showing off. She did what’s called ’spy hopping’ at one point, which was phenomenal.
We also saw a mother and calf humpback whale pair that were sleeping one snowy morning when we went out for a Zodiac tour. The silence being broken by their loud breaths every minute or two was stunning.”