It’s a cold, forbidding place where the sun shines all day round in summer and penguins (NOT polar bears) gawk and stare at new arrivals with sardonic curiosity. I am talking about, of course, Antarctica, the seventh continent, that massive hunk of land and ice down at the bottom of the planet where few (but increasingly more and more), people go. And while most visitors take trips on large steel vessels that take them through the icy seas where they stand on deck snapping pictures, National Geographic Traveler’s Boyd Matson decides to suit up in a dry suit and check out the scene underwater.
In this series of videos, you can see what Matsen sees as he plunges into 30-degree waters to check out the bizarre creatures that live in the surprisingly rich Antarctic underwater environment. And bizarre they are. We’re not talking the typical fare here of Great Whites roaming about with hungry stares (although there are killer whales), but about the wee little creatures that make up the nourishing net of life down there. Having been to Antarctica myself, but have NOT dived it, I found these rather satisfying little video bits, especially for the scuba fans out there.