📍 Cierva Cove / Mikkelson Harbour 西爾瓦灣 / 米克爾森港 - Part 6/9

Justin: At Cierva Cove, I saw more penguins than I will probably ever see again. Penguins are social creatures with excellent complex group interactions - one of which is the nest-building ritual which we had the pleasure of witnessing. Ominously, alongside the penguins, we saw fat seals catching a nap amongst crowds of what essentially is their food source. Fortunately, these creatures are slow-moving on land.

At Mikkelson Harbour, we saw the remains of the 19th-century whale hunting enterprise gradually rusting away in the Antarctic climate. Whale bones of various species of whales littered around these stations, making the place seem even more desolate. While it's a relief that humans stopped relying on whales for blubber - a fat which kept candles lit and drove the fishing for whales - the scattered remains of the industry reflect the dark nature of human consumerism and its often sorrowful impact on the natural world.

到達西爾瓦灣時，我看到了很多企鵝。我想，在那兒看到的企鵝，或許比我之後可能看到的還要多。企鵝為群居動物，它們擁有豐富多彩的溝通方式——其中之一便是我們有幸目睹的築巢儀式。不幸的是，海豹以企鵝為食，我們總看到肥胖的它們在企鵝旁邊打盹。但萬幸在於，這些生物在陸地上的移動速度十分緩慢。

在米克爾森港時，我們看到 19 世紀捕鯨站在南極氣候下已逐漸生鏽。這些站點周圍散落著各種鯨魚的鯨骨，使此地顯得更為荒涼。當時，由於鯨脂能夠用以燃點蠟燭照明，人類捕鯨猖狂。雖然現時行業不再，但眼前的零星殘骸，正正反映人類消費主義的黑暗本質，以及捕鯨對自然世界的野蠻破壞。