"The Midnight Sun. It is beautiful and disorienting. In Antarctica, the climax of summer is a day without end. The sun is always in the sky, and the night that never arrives. While it makes for difficult sleep, it does make it easier to work late and learn more. We paid a heftier price than usual for knowledge, today.

Following a group of Little Ice Men, we arrived at another rocky shore. A group of Emperor penguins gathered on one side; the Little Ice Men, giving them much space, trekked around and settled on the opposing shore. Larger versions of the youths greeted them, making sharp, clicking noises. On the beach lay a long, pale tentacle of unimaginable size. A fishy, slightly rotten smell lingered near it. We gathered around the limb excitedly. The arm was gray with small, brown freckles; it ended in a fat, sickle-shaped paddle covered in a multitude of tiny, round bumps, but was speckled with larger nodules and outlined with triangular, almost sharp, swollen blisters. Could it be a piece of the Kraken? Some unknown, undiscovered ocean beast? The limb suddenly began slithering into the water. With a quick reaction, one of the team grabbed onto the tentacle, holding tight. It lurched them forward, ankle, then knee-deep into the water. We shouted for them to let go; with panic, they screamed that they couldn’t. Peering out over the water, we could see that the flipper had embedded itself in Animal’s back. Their hands yanking backwards, the tentacle was stuck to their palms like glue. Rushing forward, three agents waded, trying to catch and grab hold of Animal. With an even more disconcerting lurch, the ocean exploded, sending foam, bits of ice, and frigid water over top us all. A stark white thing vaulted out of the water, its mouth the size of a small room and equipped with two lines of perfectly straight, bullet-shaped, fist-sized teeth.

The other, albeit smaller, birds are a large part of carnivorous animals’ diets out here. Why should we be excluded from the menu? Animal was no more, and we more carefully watched the shore, the waters, and bewared of lures." - Ballyraven Field Journal