Viking® has revealed that its expedition team was instrumental in discovering a previously unknown colony of chinstrap penguins on Diaz Rock, close to Astrolabe Island, in Antarctica. This groundbreaking finding was uncovered in January 2024 on an expedition led by Viking’s cutting-edge vessel, the Viking Octantis®, to Astrolabe Island. Located in the Bransfield Strait of the Trinity Peninsula, Astrolabe Island spans over three miles and has not undergone a thorough survey since 1987.
This discovery is important because Astrolabe Island was not thoroughly studied for nearly forty years until Viking collaborated with Oceanites, a well-known Antarctic penguin research group. Throughout the expedition, Oceanites carried out a thorough visual and thermal aerial survey, providing the first comprehensive evaluation of the established chinstrap penguin population on Astrolabe Island in almost four decades. Surprisingly, the survey also discovered a new penguin colony on Diaz Rock, contributing a new element to the ecological story of the island.
Oceanites plans to share more findings from this innovative survey in an upcoming research paper. This finding enhances our knowledge of the Antarctic ecosystem and highlights the significance of continuous research and conservation work in this isolated and delicate setting.
These recent advancements come after Viking’s first scientific publication in Polar Research, the Norwegian Polar Institute scientific journal, detailing the expedition team’s extraordinary sightings of rare giant phantom jellyfish in Antarctica from a year ago.
Viking Expedition Team & Scientific Partners
Viking has created a global top-tier scientific enrichment within an expedition structure accomplished through partnerships with renowned academic institutions. Every expedition includes visiting researchers from partner institutions as essential members of the 36-person interdisciplinary team. This team of experts leads visitors through critical scientific investigations, provides explanations during land excursions, and delivers high-quality lectures.
Oceanites has been leading the way in monitoring Antarctic penguins for the past thirty years. Working together, Viking supports Oceanites’ research efforts by sending penguin researchers on its Antarctic expedition cruises and providing thermal cameras.
Viking collaborates with Oceanites and other scientists:
- University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI): SPRI scientists operate on Viking expedition ships and share their knowledge with guests. Cambridge University’s SPRI helped establish Viking Expeditions’ scientific enrichment program. Institute experts helped design Viking’s expedition boats’ 380-square-foot Science Lab, which accommodates a wide spectrum of study with wet and dry lab equipment. Julian Dowdeswell, Professor of Physical Geography at Cambridge and former director of SPRI, chairs the Viking Research Advisory Group, a consortium of scientific leaders from Viking’s partner institutions who oversee field research on board. Viking’s Polar Marine Geoscience Fund endows Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) with its first fully funded professorship, the Viking Chair of Polar Marine Geoscience, in 2022. This post opens new study avenues into polar ice sheets, sea ice, and ocean circulation.
- The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Ornithologists do post-doctoral research on novel observation methods and advise and interact with guests aboard Viking expedition ships.
- NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL): Conducts innovative research on the dynamic environments and ecosystems of the Great Lakes and coastal regions to inform resource use and management decisions that protect and sustain ecosystems, ecosystem services, and human communities. Viking’s expedition ships are NOAA/US National Weather Service weather balloon stations that launch regularly.
- Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA): NIVA scientists conduct cross-disciplinary water research. NIVA “FerryBox system” automated oceanographic instruments sample the marine and freshwater regions where Viking’s expedition ships sail to provide continuous chlorophyll, oxygen, temperature, salinity, microplastic presence, and complementary meteorological data.
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego: Viking hosts Fjord Phyto, a NASA-funded program that allows guests to participate in novel citizen science sampling of polar phytoplankton for genetic population analyses. Viking works with the IUCN Species Survival Commission Species Monitoring Specialist Group to create maritime biodiversity monitoring methods that allow Viking expedition vessels to collect species population data.
- The Norwegian Polar Institute authorizes Viking’s Norwegian-flagged expedition boats’ Antarctica expeditions and science.