Applications were closed on Monday, April 25, in the search for the four people who will work for about five months from November next year at the world’s most remote post office, Port Lockroy, in Antarctica. The office is part of the eponymous research base – which has been dismantled and converted into a museum since 2006 – and is located on Goudier Island, an island populated by various penguin colonies, about 1,000 kilometers south of Argentina. The selected people not only have to deal with the letters and postcards from the tourists, but also count the penguins.
The Port Lockroy base was established in 1944 as part of a secret UK mission and the following year became the headquarters of the British Antarctic Survey, a British government organization dedicated to the exploration and scientific dissemination of Antarctica. Today it includes a museum and the southernmost post office on earth and is managed by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, a charity working to protect various Antarctic sites.
Because of its location, Port Lockroy is informally known as the “Penguin Post Office”. Each year the Antarctic Heritage Trust seeks and selects four people to live and work there from November to March: they are responsible for managing the site, which welcomes around 18,000 tourists who arrive by ship each year to visit and lead various activities related to environmental research, which also include observing and counting penguins.
In addition to counting penguins, they must keep track of the number of mating specimens, the number of nests, the eggs laid and the young that are born. The aim of the study activity, coordinated with the British Antarctic Survey, is to monitor the possible growth or decline of the penguin population in this part of the territory.
Although the job offer requires both physically and mentally “demanding” living conditions, hundreds of inquiries come from people from all over the world and of all ages every year (more than 2,500 come every year).
As Camilla Nichol, director of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, told The Washington Post, life on Goudier Island is quite difficult. Those selected first will have to complete a training period in the UK and will be without running water, internet or cell phone coverage for several months after arriving in Antarctica between late October and early November. Also, as Nichol said, “You can work up to 12 hours a day and not have much time to rest and relax.”
Lucy Dorman, manager of the Port Lockroy base between 2019 and 2020 and also last season, said that “it’s not just snow and penguins” but that you work very hard. In a blog dedicated to activities at the base, he said that you often have to carry heavy boxes, cans or buckets on snow or very slippery rocks, and that you have to sweep penguin droppings every day to keep the area clean to keep . According to Dorman, while the work can be particularly difficult, it is rewarded by the great sense of unity and community that can be created. The site will also reopen to tourists next season after being closed for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re very excited,” said Nichols.
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