Arctic Adventures: Going on a Bear Hunt: Day 4 Part I

6/20/2012 Wednesday:

I had the most amazing experience this morning. I woke up at 5 or 6 and looked out the porthole window and saw that there were finally major ice floes (pieces of ice floating by) viewable. Our morning program said that we would be headed into Hinlopen Straight which separates Svalbard’s two large islands, Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet, and is lined with fjords. This area is usually still ice covered this early in the summer, but the ice charts showed that it should be possible (evidence of climate change) to get through. I wanted to see the ship breaking through the ice, so I took the video camera and hung over the bow of the ship and aimed it at the bottom. The sound was amazing and, as I was focused on the splitting and cracking, I saw polar bear tracks. So, as the ship moved through this ice, the video camera picked up long trails of polar bear tracks and it really felt like the ship and I were “going on a bear hunt!” Now was the challenge of trying to find a white polar bear on the bright, white ice. We were told to look for a cream colored spot on the ice that is moving as most stationary spots are just dirty ice. I am proud to say that I can spot a polar bear with my binoculars. When the first bear was spotted, the ship moved as close as it could (which wasn’t very far) and waited to see what it did. It stayed put. The pictures I took of this bear are very distant and lacking in quality. So, the ship backed up to try a different view of the ice.

My life will never be the same…

I can’t’ stop smiling and shaking because I am overwhelmed by my amazing, awe-inspiring experience. I just spent an hour watching a polar bear from a speck far in the distance to up close and personal. The ship broke through the ice and stopped and the curious polar bear came right up to the ship, stood up and looked right at me (okay, and the rest of the people)! I feel so blessed and am so grateful. The bear was so curious and walked around the end of the bow of the ship and stood up on its hind legs, walked around the starboard side, stopped and sniffed and stared up at all of the people looking down at it and taking pictures—we were the polar bear paparazzi! Later, the naturalists said that this was a rare opportunity to have the polar bear come up so close to the boat. It was a highlight for them as well. In fact, I saw many of the ship staff sneak out to the bow to take pictures. Now, it is almost lunchtime and another bear has been spotted and so the ship is changing positions to check it out. There are spotters and spotting scopes up on the bridge of the ship that work around the clock to spot wildlife for the guests. After lunch is a presentation on Polar Bears by Steve MacLean, National Geographic staff.