McMurdo Station

This week I had the opportunity to see Herzog's new film, "Encounters at the End of the World" at a local film festival. To film this, Herzog went to McMurdo Station, the largest station in Antarctica, under the auspices of the National Science Foundation's Artist and Writer's Program. I was there under that same program, and boy, how it brought back memories! I knew several of the scientists that were in the movie, and recognized places, including the inside of one of our Wooville Camp huts, where Herzog interviewed a seal scientist describing the milk of a Weddell Seal. I would recommend this movie, as it is an interesting commentary on the station culture. Herzog warned NSF before they sent him that he wasn't going to be making another fluffy penguin movie, and he sure didn't! But it does make me nostalgic for the experience of working at the stations. Though I haven't been to McMurdo in ten years, it looms large in my memory. My recent six seasons on the peninsula side of Antarctica were spent aboard the Marco Polo cruise ship and although I thoroughly enjoyed that experience, it couldn't be more different from being based at a science station. In addition to the eccentric personalities Herzog brings forth, is some fantastic underwater footage from the underneath the sea ice.