Nordaustlandet & Hinlopen Strait
Today we were on a bear hunt. To find your prey it is necessary to have patience, good eyes and a thorough understanding of its habits. Good quality optics are also a help, as the farther away you can detect your prey, the better your chances of making a slow and cautious approach, ideally from downwind. Without distractions, the best hunter enters an almost Zen-like state of meditation, focused only on the goal. The skill is in picking out the right creamy-white spot from many possible contenders. Is it a pale rock onshore or dirty ice among the pack ice? When a rock grows legs and walks, or the dirty ice has a black nose and eyes, then you know that you have found your quarry: isbjorn – the polar bear.
It is pleasing to be able to report that at the start of the 21st century the polar bear population in Svalbard is healthy. After seeing evidence of polar bear hunting on Halvmåneøya yesterday, hearing how hunting has been banned since 1973, and despite concerns about levels of pollutants bio-accumulating in the tissues of these top predators, the regional population has increased to about 3,000 animals. Whether their future is so bright with the looming threat of global climate change and the consequent prospect of a significant reduction in their Arctic pack ice habitat is a point for concern and a focus for discussion on this voyage.
This afternoon, after a long and at times difficult hunt battling poor visibility due to fog, we were rewarded with close approaches to a female bear with two cubs on the shoreline and a single animal on pack ice. As we closed in on our prey, we waited until we were close enough to get a good shot. Then the noise of the clicking of shutters from numerous cameras filled the air, as cameras have replaced guns and images are the new trophies.
Today we were on a bear hunt. To find your prey it is necessary to have patience, good eyes and a thorough understanding of its habits. Good quality optics are also a help, as the farther away you can detect your prey, the better your chances of making a slow and cautious approach, ideally from downwind. Without distractions, the best hunter enters an almost Zen-like state of meditation, focused only on the goal. The skill is in picking out the right creamy-white spot from many possible contenders. Is it a pale rock onshore or dirty ice among the pack ice? When a rock grows legs and walks, or the dirty ice has a black nose and eyes, then you know that you have found your quarry: isbjorn – the polar bear.
It is pleasing to be able to report that at the start of the 21st century the polar bear population in Svalbard is healthy. After seeing evidence of polar bear hunting on Halvmåneøya yesterday, hearing how hunting has been banned since 1973, and despite concerns about levels of pollutants bio-accumulating in the tissues of these top predators, the regional population has increased to about 3,000 animals. Whether their future is so bright with the looming threat of global climate change and the consequent prospect of a significant reduction in their Arctic pack ice habitat is a point for concern and a focus for discussion on this voyage.
This afternoon, after a long and at times difficult hunt battling poor visibility due to fog, we were rewarded with close approaches to a female bear with two cubs on the shoreline and a single animal on pack ice. As we closed in on our prey, we waited until we were close enough to get a good shot. Then the noise of the clicking of shutters from numerous cameras filled the air, as cameras have replaced guns and images are the new trophies.
