The finding took place in January when Viking Octantis visited the three-mile-long island, located in the Bransfield Strait of the Trinity Peninsula. Astrolabe is home to a colony of chinstrap penguins that had not been surveyed since 1987.
During the visit, Viking’s scientific partner, Oceanites, the leading field research entity in Antarctic penguin monitoring, conducted a visual and thermal aerial survey. The fieldwork documented the first survey in nearly 40 years of the known chinstrap penguin colony of Astrolabe and, in the process, discovered the additional colony on Diaz Rock.
Scientific paper to follow
Oceanites will share additional details from the survey in a scientific paper to follow in due course.
'We are pleased to have supported another significant scientific development that will allow for further understanding of the region,' Viking Chairman Torstein Hagen said. ' ... Our intention has always been to provide our guests and scientists with opportunities for meaningful discovery during each voyage. We look forward to supporting other critical research opportunities on future voyages.'
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