When we entered the fjord in which we engaged in the water
sports, Lomfjorden, we came across another walrus haul out. This time, they were on ice. I was able to capture many close-up
pictures of these big guys. The ship
just keeps sneaking up on wildlife.
Walrus haul out on ice.
Big ones are gonna take the plunge.
Splash.
Kaboom.
Checking out the ship.
He has something to say. Look at the big one to the right.
Hello.
The Bear Hunt
Continues
We spent a lot of time on our “bear hunt” with the
ship. It is enjoyable to spend
time up on the bridge as the Captain and crew constantly make adjustments to
move the ship in out of fjords looking for fast ice (Ice attached to land) to
find polar bears. The naturalists
are stationed at spotting scopes or with binoculars searching the ice for
bears. Guests come and go from the
bridge as they add their own set of eyes to the hunt. I just spent a couple of hours there. It is midnight now. There were many false alarms as creamy
dots on the white landscape turn out to be logs, dirty ice, reindeer, or
seals. We did have an actual bear
sighting earlier in the day, but we were never able to get too close to
it. We did see some more walruses,
seals, reindeer, and birds. As I
left, a dark, mysterious fog was enveloping our very sunny landscape. Here is a peak of what it looks like at midnight in the Arctic.
I partnered with Katherine, one of our young explorers on
board, to kayak the Arctic Ocean. We were in Fakesevagen (Fakse Bay). As we enjoyed the calm, sunny day, a zodiac outfitted as a Viking ship
came over to deliver hot chocolate and ginger cookies. Very cute. Katherine’s mom and brother were in another kayak so we
raced them from one mini bergy-bit to another and back.
We won!
Polar Plunge
The Viking Ship coming with hot cocoa.
After returning from kayaking, guests were invited to become
a member of the polar bear club and do the polar plunge. As you may have guessed, this involves
jumping into the Arctic Ocean and surviving. The staff used the platform set-up for launching the kayaks
as the stage for the plunge. Crazy
people jumped or dove off of the edge of a zodiac and were immediately helped
back up on to the platform out of the cold and into a towel. I was one of those crazy people. I still cannot believe I did this. It was shockingly cold. I could not wait to get out. But once I was out and back on the
ship, it felt exhilarating. I don’t
believe I will ever do it again, but I am glad I didn’t wimp out of it. I can thank fellow teacher, Katie
Hoeckzema, for the extra push I needed to do it. I am now a polar bear--here is the evidence that I did it!
We awoke to a 5:30am announcement that we had arrived at Kapp Fanshawe (Cape Fanshawe) in which the high cliffs of Alkefjellet (Mount Guillemot) were swarming with birds.We had arrived at the bird cliffs.The same as those shown on “Frozen Planet.”The ship moved right along the cliffs allowing me to take a bazillion pictures and record many video clips.The cacophony of about 400,000 birds is extraordinary and they are diving to and fro over your head and everywhere.It is really quite graceful rather than Alfred Hitchcock creepy, as you might expect.I had expected a terrible stench from the bird guano, but the wind was just right today and the smell was pretty mild.Most of the birds are black and white, resembling a penguin, and are called Brunnich’s Guillemots or thick-billed murres.They dive and swim underwater like a penguin, but, unlike penguins, can also fly in the air.They lay beautifully patterned eggs of varying colors right on the bare cliff ledge as they don’t build a nest.The shape of the egg is more pointed at one end (kind of like a top) causing them to roll in a circle rather than off the ledge.The smaller gulls on the cliffs are Kittiwakes, named because it sounds a bit like it is calling “kitty wake.”Most are gray and white with black wing tips. The kittiwakes actually makes a nest for its eggs, as do the large Glaucous Gulls.When the guillemot chicks are just 21 days old, they jump off the cliff to the sounds of their fathers calling below and hope they miss the solid ground and land in the ocean.This event is shown on the “Frozen Planet” series and many of the chicks bounce across the land and some become victim to the Arctic fox.Oh…that food chain.
Birds in every nook and cranny.
Brunnich's Guillemots perching on every ledge.
Kittiwakes sitting on nests on the left while Guillemots lay their egg on the bare ledge.
The cliffs
See the Guillemot in the middle coming in for a landing.
Walrus Wednesday! After dinner, we took a ride on the zodiac over to
Torellneset to see more walrus “hauled out” (on land).All walrus that we see, by the way, are males as the
females are on the east coast of Nordaustlandet.By the time my group, which chose the longer hike, reached
the walrus area, they had taken to the water and were actively swimming.Looked like a bunch of teenagers having
fun.Apparently the wind had
picked up and was crowding all of the ice floes along the beach and walrus
don’t like to have their exit blocked, thus, they took to the water.I have now seen walrus up close and
personal (from a beach adjacent to where they were swimming).Their tusks are much
larger than I expected and they appear quite playful.As you may have guessed: the longer the tusks the
older the walrus.Way Cool!
Now you see them (tusks)...
now you don't.
Massive body.
From the front...
from the side.
Take a ride on a zodiac with back to the ship. It is an adventure in itself!
Young Explorers
Today, we arranged to take the kids on a tour of the engine
room, recycling area, and a personal meeting with the undersea explorer,
Jared. We had more kids show up
for this one, 9 plus a young couple that we have befriended on ship (Matt and
Stephanie). The kids loved to see
the diving suit and the apparatus used to house the camera to keep it
airtight. The little ones have so
many questions and so much to share---lots of energy!
Harmony's pic of the young explorer's in the engine room.
After leaving the bear, we stayed in this High Arctic area and went to view Austfonna, one of the largest icecaps in the world. It covers over 8,105 km2 of the island of Nordaustlandet and flows down to the sea forming a 150 km long ice cliff, which is 10-35m high. It doesn’t look so big from a distance, but when you meander right up to it in a ship it is huge and massive. You could almost stick your arm out and touch it. Fascination. There were a few small meltwater streams flowing off of it and creating little waterfalls. Later in the summer, these will be more significant flowing streams (Frozen Planet filmed this phenomena at the same location).
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.
This is how far away the bears are when first spotted.
We headed toward the northwest coast of the large island of
Nordaustland (Northeast Land). Arriving
at the small island of Lagoya just off of Nordaustland's coast, we reached our highest point north, the closest
I will ever be to Santa Claus and the North Pole. Katie, Harmony and I periodically go to the ship’s bridge to
record our current longitude and latitude and then mark it (geolocate) on a map
by the chart room for everyone on board to follow. Our highest recorded point is 80° 22’ N. This put us at approximately 664 miles from the North Pole
(60 minutes in a degree=588 minutes x ~1.15 miles/minute=664 miles). The longitude is 18° 20’ minutes E. To put this in perspective, my location
at home in Minot is 48°
14’ N, 101° 20’W.
So, at Lagoya, I was approximately 32° north of home, which
comes out to about 2,208 miles (32 degrees x ~69miles/degree). I had never thought about how far we in
Minot, NORTH Dakota are from the North Pole, but it is about 2,898 miles (90°-48°=42°;
42° x 69mi/degree). Okay, enough of that.
Walrus Haul Out
I had the privilege of going on a 2nd excursion
today, a zodiac “cruise” (boat only; no setting foot on land) to see walrus “hauled out” (on land) on Lagoya island. They are massive animals as they are the second largest pinniped (fin-footed mammals). The walrus were all in one heap and, as we moved towards them, I thought they looked like a
pile of baked potatoes. This is
where males go to molt and piling together causes them to get very, very hot. This
helps them shed their winter hair.
During a haul out, their vessels get larger (vasodilation) on their
skin and they become pink in color. Upon
re-entering the water, those vessels constrict and they lose the pink
tinge. Their whiskers are called vibrissae
and are crucial for helping them find clams, mussels and other food on the murky
bottom. We cruised near the walrus
haul out in the zodiac, but it was windy, choppy, cold and it was hard to take
pictures or video. This was the
coldest outing we have had. One
walrus was in the water swimming and I tried to get a picture but it was really
tough with the conditions and my picture is blurry. Thanks to Katie, I have a video clip of the walrus haul out. If you watch it, it will be obvious how choppy the water was while we were in the zodiac.
Red Phalarope under ice ledge.
I also saw a red phalarope, which are birds more closely
related to sandbirds, but have partially webbed feet so they can move around a
bit like a duck. Their unique
behavior is that they move their feet under water to create a mini-vortex that
funnels algae towards them so that they can pick out their food with their
tweezer-like beak.
The Ship is a Rockin’
The weather toughened up and, at dinnertime, was really
rocking in some pretty big waves.
I started to feel sick so I took some anti-nausea medicine. I went back to my table where I was
sitting with Karen, one of the naturalists, and Katie and Harmony, the other
two teachers. I ate my appetizer (Minestrone
soup), and hoped I would feel better before my entrée arrived. But, finally gave up and went to my
room, lying down without bothering to change clothes or anything. I slept until morning and felt
great. I found out that after I
left, Katie and Harmony did too.
One at a time, the teachers gave it up and left before eating and Karen
had to eat by herself.
