The White Continent float-out

It’s hard to count a group of penguins standing together in a “waddle”, but easier in a “raft” when they’re floating on the water. And that’s precisely what six scientists from Oceanites have been doing on Aurora Expeditions’ first departure of the season to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Working on foot and with drones, they’ve been counting for the Antarctic Site Inventory, one of the longest-running records of how penguin populations are changing.

Oceanites is a global nonprofit supported primarily by individual donations that has tracked penguin populations on the rapidly warming Antarctic Peninsula for more than 30 years.

It’s important work in monitoring the effects of climate change. And Aurora Expeditions has spent 35 years getting to know the penguin colonies and supporting scientific work.