That’s not a reindeer, it is a polar bear! Day 3 Part 1

6/19/2012 Tuesday: 

Hill with many graves.

Our zodiac excursion today was to Sorgfjorden, Fjord of Sorrow, so named because so many lost their lives here.  It is on the northern tip of Spitsbergen island at about the 80 degrees north. There is a large cross on a hill, a little shack (once used for a science expedition and a trapper’s shack) and many graves.  The catastrophe in which so many lives were lost occurred back in 1693 when 3 French ships attacked a fleet of 40 Dutch Whalers and 13 Dutch ships were captured. 

Just one of many plastics found on the beach.

On all of our hikes, there were signs of man's impact on this pristine environment.  The remains of camps (as shown in an earlier blog entry) and, today, non-biodegradable plastics.  Some of the plastics found have labels on which you can determine where they came from.  This, along with the driftwood on the beaches, are a evidence of the power of ocean currents.  

Driftwood brought here by ocean currents was found on many beaches.

Harmony took this picture.  I'm in the back.

It was a thrilling little expedition as I again chose the long hike and while we were receiving a history lesson, we trudged through some deep snow areas.  Some people sunk in well past their knees and couldn’t pull their legs back out and a couple walked right out of their Muck boots.  To get across in some places, we had to literally walk on our hands and knees.  When we were well into our hike, but hadn’t yet reached the graves, one of the fellow hikers spotted through his binoculars what he thought was a polar bear.  Everyone kind of ignored him for a bit because there were 3 reindeer in the area at which he had his binoculars aimed and it was assumed that he just saw one of the reindeer.  The guide then looked and confirmed, that it was indeed a polar bear.  We can’t be on land if there is a polar bear present because of the danger to us.  In fact, all of the naturalists/guides have flare guns and rifles and we are required to stick together and not wander off.  Thus, we had to cut the hike short. Our guide radioed the other groups and everyone headed back to the zodiacs and the ship in a short period of time.  This would have been the first polar bear I saw, but we couldn’t all stop and look through our binoculars because it was not safe.  This was part of our Mandatory Arctic training on our first day aboard the ship.  We only view polar bears through the platform of the ship.  A short time before the polar bear was spotted, I was looking through my binoculars and an ivory gull flew by, filling up my whole field of view.  It was beautiful as it is the only entirely white gull.  However, that is a sign that there is a polar bear in the area as they eat the carrion (dead animal flesh) left behind by the polar bears.  I had just learned about this connection during the earlier part of this hike and, then, was privileged to witness it in nature.