New Job Opening For Counting Penguins At Antarctic Post Office

A British charity is looking for candidates who are willing to spend five months in Antarctica, to run the world's most remote post office. The candidates who are selected will spend five months at the Port Lockroy post office, museum and gift shop on the Goudier Island.

According to the BBC, this is the first time that the site is being opened to the public since COVID-19 struck. The charity - UK Antarctic Heritage Trust - sends seasonal postmasters to the base who are responsible for preserving historic buildings and artefacts in Antarctica.

“Dream of waking up & seeing Antarctica in all its glory? Penguins plodding around, the sun peeping over snow topped mountains. A job like no other. Join us & help protect Antarctica's heritage & conserve its precious environment. Apply by 25 April,” UKAHT posted on its Twitter handle.

Dream of waking up & seeing Antarctica in all its glory? Penguins plodding around, the sun peeping over snow topped mountains. A job like no other. Join us & help protect Antarctica's heritage & conserve its precious environment. Apply by 25 April. https://t.co/NPSf6dKLdi pic.twitter.com/GmJYIq5w1m

— UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (@AntarcticHT) April 4, 2022

The successful candidates will have to be at the base from November 2022 to March 2023, according to USA Today. These are Antarctica's summer months when temperature is higher than the usual.

The post office gets about 80,000 pieces of mail a season, reported USA Today.

The staff members will also have to count penguins and other wildlife for the British Antarctic Survey and submit the report by the end of their employment.

Vicky Inglis, who previously worked at the base as a one of the postmasters, told CBC Radio that the job is an opportunity of a lifetime - but not for the faint-hearted.

"We did have to dig our way [through the snow] to get access for the first time when we arrived. We've got no flush toilets and nothing like that - none of the modern luxuries that we're used to," she said.

Candidates are required to have good level of physical fitness, environmental awareness and a knowledge of minimum impact living.

Port Lockroy was the first permanent British scientific research base established on the Antarctic peninsula, and was operated between 1944 and 1962. The UKAHT took over the base in 2006 and running it as a conservation and tourist site ever since.

The small post office, museum and gift shop are all run by a rotating staff of four to five people.

While it remained closed last year due to COVID-19, the charity claims thousands of tourists arrive there by cruise ship during the Antarctic summer between November and March.