WASHINGTON — They waddle around in the snow and ice, lovingly protecting their eggs and providing endless fodder for TV shows, kids’ movies and documentaries voiced by Morgan Freeman.
But penguins also serve as indicators of what is happening to the world’s oceans. Their population, behavior and diets work as a kind of environmental compass.
Tracking these plump, flightless birds is no easy task. It requires weeks of frigid counting in subzero temperatures by teams of heavily insulated scientists in the Antarctic.
These counters — who use small, clicking devices similar to those employed by flight attendants — are the subjects of the new documentary “Penguin Counters.”
“It’s crazy — five or six penguin counters trying to count tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of penguins, in a season,” says co-producer and director Peter Getzels.
“It’s a pretty mad endeavor from the get-go. To make a film about it, as well, is kind of a mad endeavor.”
Shooting in extreme conditions is nothing new to Getzels and his wife, Harriet Gordon. The pair, who met in a high school English class and now live in Chevy Chase, Maryland, have filmed award- winning documentaries in the Andes, Himalayas, Amazon and even Siberia.
But more than 20 years worth of experience didn’t prepare them for the challenges presented by the pesky penguins and their frigid environment.
The film crew traveled to Antarctica with a team of penguin counters led by Ron Naveen, who is married to Getzels’ cousin. They hitchhiked on tourist boats until they arrived in the icy continent and then boarded a 50-foot sailboat that served as home base during their six weeks of shooting.
The high winds and frosty rain resulted in foggy camera lenses and several days trapped inside the small boat. When the crew was able to shoot, they ran into a different kind of problem.
“[Penguins] wander around all the time,” Getzels says. “They’re pretty hyperactive.”
Armed with tally counters, the researchers divide colonies of penguins into manageable sections and count each bird one by one. This process is repeated three times and then averaged into a final number.
“It’s a painstaking task: Click. Click. Click,” Getzels says.
The information provided by these counters is used as a marker by the larger scientific community to understand what is happening in the environment.
Recent expeditions have revealed that dwindling penguin colonies correlate to depleted populations of krill, penguins’ favorite food. Conversely, penguins that have adapted to eat different kinds of fish are doing better.
“If you look at the problems of the oceans, they are all the same as those affecting penguins,” says Andrea Kavanagh, director of Pew Charitable Trusts’ Global Penguin Conservation Campaign.
“Overfishing, climate change, pollution — all those things that are affecting the oceans at large are also impacting penguins.”
Experts have warned against the overfishing of krill and other fish stocks for decades. The small, shrimp-like crustaceans serve as the foundation for many popular Omega-3 supplements found on the shelves today. Krill is also ground up and used in feed for the agriculture and agro-culture industries. Because the pink creatures have become a fixture in the world economy, penguins must find food elsewhere.
The result?
“About two-thirds of all penguin populations are endangered,” Kavanagh says.
Pew is pushing for more regulation in the Antarctic Peninsula, the fastest- warming region in the world. Rising sea levels are also depleting krill, Kavanagh says, and contributing to the plight of the penguins.
But the environmental message behind “Penguin Counters” is just a small aspect of the film. The allure of experiencing an alien world across the globe is what inspires Getzels and Gordon.
“We just look for really good stories and we go where they happen,” Getzels says. “It just happens that those stories occur in extreme environments.”
“Penguin Counters” is scheduled for a 2015 release. Click here for more information.
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