Antarctica Dream Job: Port Lockroy Wildlife Monitor

From application rejection to Antarctica dream job! Wildlife monitoring at Port Lockroy, counting penguins for UKAHT, preserving heritage, and experiencing the adventure of a lifetime in a remote landscape.

I actually applied to operate at Port Lockroy in 2022. My timing couldn’t have actually been even worse. Post-pandemic, the charity received a document variety of applications– over 6,000– and I wasn’t one of the lucky ones. However, 6 months later on, heading back from a month-long layover in Central America, I find an Instagram message for a work openings: Communications Police officer at the UK Antarctic Heritage Depend On.

Antarctic Heritage Trust Role

I quickly applied and, a couple of weeks later, started working for the Trust fund where I combine several of my interests: creating posts, modifying digital photography and investigating tales of the conservationists, explorers and researchers who have actually braved among one of the most tough atmospheres in the world. After checking out Antarctica in 2022, operating at the Depend on has actually confirmed to be a desire task.

For those of you who have been following the blog for some time, you might remember that in 2023, I protected a desired job at the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust Fund (UKAHT), a charity responsible for maintaining British heritage websites in Antarctica.

Port Lockroy Assignment Details

This year, I’ll be signing up with the Port Lockroy group in Antarctica for three months during the austral summer season. My work? Wildlife screen– which involves counting penguins on the tiny football-pitch-sized Goudier Island on the Antarctic Peninsula, 9,000 miles far from my home in London.

3 years after applying to operate at Port Lockroy, I’ve found myself doing simply that. I will be investing Christmas, New Year and my birthday celebration in Antarctica. Sometimes, life just discovers a way of working itself out in the end.

Peter Watson is a writer, photographer and adventurer. He has actually been to 100 nations and climbed the greatest hills in Africa, Europe, South America and North America– four of the Seven Tops. peterjohnwatson.com

This period sees the Trust fund start among its most considerable preservation operates at Port Lockroy because 1996, extending three periods. Significant structural repair services are prepared for Bransfield House, which houses the gallery, to address problems triggered by enhanced snow loading and moisture.

Conservation Efforts Underway

A large part of my role will certainly be content collection. I’ll be creating once a week reports on the Trust fund’s blog and publishing regularly across their social media sites channels. Normally, Atlas & Boots may be a bit quieter while I’m away, so please register for UKAHT’s newsletter to keep abreast of all my most current information.

These renowned structures were left vacant for several decades till the establishment of UKAHT in 1993. Since then, they have actually worked to care and preserve for these websites to make them safe, protected and easily accessible for visitors from worldwide.

Dealing with the other participants of this year’s Port Lockroy team of 7, I will certainly likewise invest the period inviting visitors to this small area on the world map. Now a historic website and gallery, and home to the world’s most remote post office, the site is completed by a small gift shop where visitors can purchase keepsakes with their purchases directly sustaining the depend on’s vital work in heritage preservation in one of one of the most challenging atmospheres in the world.

Life at World’s Remote Post Office

I will certainly be heading to Antarctica in December to spend three months functioning and living at Port Lockroy. The three-year preservation plan starts this season with the team functioning to stabilise the framework.

Each year, UKAHT sends a little group to Port Lockroy to run the world’s most southern message workplace and a gallery that works as a time pill of early polar scientific research. The group also monitors the local gentoo penguin swarm and accomplishes challenging conservation service a few of one of the most remote historical structures in the world.

I will certainly be heading to Antarctica in December to invest 3 months working and living at Port Lockroy. I expect to be home in March 2026. My official function while at Port Lockroy will be wild animals monitor, which– believe it or otherwise– essentially involves counting penguins!

Environment change mitigation initiatives include adding drips to roofing systems and windows and replacing all windows in the generator shed. The three-year conservation strategy starts this season with the team functioning to secure the structure. Year 2 will certainly see significant architectural repair work, and in the final year, artefacts will certainly be renewed and the final repairs completed.

I actually used to function at Port Lockroy in 2022. Three years after using to work at Port Lockroy, I have actually located myself doing simply that. Sometimes, life just finds a means of working itself out in the end.

As the wildlife screen, I will certainly count and keep an eye on the island’s swarm of around 1,000 gentoo penguins, which becomes part of a lasting research of the reproducing success of the nest and uses insights into the influences of a warming climate.

Wildlife Monitoring Mission

Over the occurring years, Port Lockroy witnessed the birth of British Antarctic scientific research while it ran as a climatic research base until 1962. Abandoned for 3 decades, Port Lockroy was restored in 1996 with support from UKAHT, who then took over full administration of the site in 2006. Since then, it has been welcoming visitors to the globe and the gallery’s southernmost blog post workplace while recording crucial information on our resident gentoo nest.

These sites, which were built between the 1940s and 1970s, are the missing link between the Brave Period frameworks of Scott and Shackleton and the modern-day clinical stations such as Halley and Rothera, operated by the British Antarctic Survey.

Port Lockroy has been referred to as a safe anchorage following its use by the whaling fleets of the early 20th century. For this reason, in 1944, it was chosen as the site for Base A– the initial continuously occupied British base in Antarctica as part of the secret wartime goal, Operation Tabarin.

UKAHT secures and protects websites and artefacts of international relevance throughout the Antarctic Peninsula. Their job centres on six historic bases along the Antarctic Peninsula, with each site informing a special story of discovery and scientific expedition.

A replica historic Nissen hut offers and completes the website as a bunkhouse for our tiny team during the austral summer. The website has no running water, purging bathroom or keys electrical power, and I’ll be working in sub-zero temperature levels and 24-hour daytime.