Hornsund, Spitsbergen
After sailing all night, we arrived at the entrance to Hornsund. This is the southernmost fjord on Spitsbergen, and a very unique and beautiful fjord. We landed at a new place for Lindblad Expeditions, and were quite pleased with our choice! The surrounding birdcliffs have the largest population of little auk (called dovekit in the U.S.); seven hundred thousand breeding pairs in total.
The gulf stream sends up a warm current that creates an upwelling of the cold nutrient water from the bottom of the ocean. The whole ecosystem uses those nutrients, from plant plankton with photosynthesis (because of the light from the midnight sun), to zooplankton, to fish species and from there to the birds. Those rich bird colonies will again fertilize the ground in area surrounding the nests, thus providing the area with green, lush tundra. This tundra then gives the reindeer population a good basis for survival, which brings it all full circle to explain the number of reindeer we saw.
After a windy trip ashore, we sailed the National Geographic Endeavour into the fjord Hornsund, and into a bay called Samarinvågen. This is a very active glacier, as we could see from the large iceberg that was calving off from the glacier as we approached. By measuring the glacier front as it is today, and comparing that to old maps, we could determine that since 1936, this glacier has retreated approximately 2.7 miles.
We also explored via Zodiac along the glacier front to look at the abundance of birds in the area, and the impressive glacier face and its activity. We were all amazed by the colors of the icebergs that have calved off this active glacier.
After sailing all night, we arrived at the entrance to Hornsund. This is the southernmost fjord on Spitsbergen, and a very unique and beautiful fjord. We landed at a new place for Lindblad Expeditions, and were quite pleased with our choice! The surrounding birdcliffs have the largest population of little auk (called dovekit in the U.S.); seven hundred thousand breeding pairs in total.
The gulf stream sends up a warm current that creates an upwelling of the cold nutrient water from the bottom of the ocean. The whole ecosystem uses those nutrients, from plant plankton with photosynthesis (because of the light from the midnight sun), to zooplankton, to fish species and from there to the birds. Those rich bird colonies will again fertilize the ground in area surrounding the nests, thus providing the area with green, lush tundra. This tundra then gives the reindeer population a good basis for survival, which brings it all full circle to explain the number of reindeer we saw.
After a windy trip ashore, we sailed the National Geographic Endeavour into the fjord Hornsund, and into a bay called Samarinvågen. This is a very active glacier, as we could see from the large iceberg that was calving off from the glacier as we approached. By measuring the glacier front as it is today, and comparing that to old maps, we could determine that since 1936, this glacier has retreated approximately 2.7 miles.
We also explored via Zodiac along the glacier front to look at the abundance of birds in the area, and the impressive glacier face and its activity. We were all amazed by the colors of the icebergs that have calved off this active glacier.
