The Climax of Charcot Island, by Film Students Taban Khan and Gabrielle Gatdula

This summer, we decided to tackle the climax of the Beyond the Ice story, Charcot Island. The scientists of the LTER had been anticipating this leg of their trip the most because they had been unable to reach it last year. The most important piece of their science lied here, and it was paramount that they were able to include Charcot in their research.
The voice of our story, Jen Mannas, emphasizes this importance. A scientist who studies penguins, she led the team that studied Charcot this year along with Hugh Ducklow, the lead scientist of the LTER at Palmer Station. According to Mannas, Charcot is the southernmost Adelie penguin population on the Antarctic Peninsula. Since it hasn?t started to change yet, it?s a good indicator of what the Antarctic Peninsula used to be like. By studying how the Adelie penguins have evolved to live in places like Palmer and Avian Island compared to Charcot, the scientists can see just how much the Western Antarctic Peninsula has changed. All of this research will hopefully culminate into a better understanding of how the global system may change.

So far, editing the footage of Jen and her team at Charcot Island has been an insightful experience. We get to see clips from the beginning of the trip to the completion. Hugh Ducklow and the Captain navigate the Gould towards Charcot Island. The Captain shows the various maps that help the team head into Charcot in the safest way possible. They face the challenge of leading the ship into a clear way that avoids packs of sea-ice at 3 in the morning. The most vivid footage comes from Jen and her team as they arrive in Charcot and have to climb up the rocky hills of the island with Adelie penguins around them. What makes it even more exciting is the GOPRO footage, and it feels like one is actually there experiencing the whole trip.
What we hope by the end of this summer is to put together a sequence that entails the experiences that Jen, Hugh, and the Captain went through and the vivid obstacles they faced. From the miles of pack ice ahead of the Gould to the struggles that penguins face as they climb up the rock face, Charcot Island is a total adventure.