On this December’s Antarctic Cruise Adventure, a portion of guests’ fares will pay for two types of state-of-the-art tracking tags for seabirds. Dr. Megan Cimino heads up the seabird component of the Long-Term Ecological Research program based out of Palmer Station, and the time-depth recorders (TDR) will allow her to expand her team’s studies on the foraging behavior of southern giant petrels and Adelie and gentoo penguins.

The TDRs inform the team where the seabirds are locating food, how deep they are diving and how much energy they exert. Given the record low Antarctic sea ice this year, this data will be critical for understanding climate impacts on these ecologically important species.

Watch Dr. Cimino talk about her research and its importance: