My Blog - Jeff Clarke

A recent journey, along the Humboldt Current, brought home to me, just how little is really known about species distribution in one of the world’s most important biodiversity rich areas. As the frigid waters of the Humboldt power north, along the immense coastal fringes of Chile and then on to Peru, they are loaded with a maelstrom of nutrients that get dragged from the depths of the ocean abyss, up the continental slope and into the sunlit surface waters. This mechanism is the engine for a food production process that has few equals anywhere else on the planet. As a result, the Pacific Ocean in this region seemingly brims with fish, fish-eating birds and marine mammals. Even so the total number predatory animals exploiting the Humboldt Cur...

24-26/02/17 – Journey to Paracas and Callao - Peru Click on the images to enlarge to full size. Our final full day at sea would prove to be an absolute stormer. The Continental Shelf on this leg was almost non-existent and the sea floor sloped away steeply, with lots of folds and trenches along the way, creating an underwater maelstrom bringing rich upwellings to the surface waters that teemed with seabirds and cetaceans. Ringed Storm-petrels were still the dominant species but there was also a fair sprinkling of Wedge-rumped Storm Petrels playing second fiddle. Sooty shearwaters had only been present in moderate numbers since passing Chiloe Island but now they were back in force. Our track northwards must have been slightly clo...