Most expeditions make a plan and stick to it. But the Arctic forces you to be flexible. Our ship, the National Geographic Endeavour, has this ability to switch at a moment to plan B, C or even D...and still make something remarkable out of it. Our intention today was to sail down Hinlopen Strait, which separates Spitsbergen from Nordaustlandet. This body of water is known for its tricky navigation, due to shallow areas, running tides and constantly shifting drift-ice. The name Hinlopen most likely dates back to the early Dutch whaling period here: Thyman Jacobz Hinlopen was a managing director of Noordsche Compagnie from 1617.
As we made our approach from the north, we suddenly ran into ice. Drifting sea-ice means a potential for ice bears. Several eager eyes spent time searching the ice, but it was the captain who spotted the first bear, as it walked right under the bridge wing! Most of the morning was spent in seven-tenths pack until we had encountered 5 different polar bears, the closest down to 50m off the bow. During breakfast we made our way further south, to find the ice starting to open up. Now we were to experience something unique.
Svalbard is a stronghold for the Brünnich’s guillemot (thick-billed murre in American!). It breeds along steep cliff faces, on very narrow ledges. At around two weeks old, and still unable to fly, the chick jumps into the sea and swims away with a parent. It will actually start its first migration, to escape the winter, by swimming many hundreds of miles. The accompanying parent feeds it for about three more weeks. As we sailed south, the sea was covered with guillemot chicks swimming doggedly behind their fathers. From the deck we could hear the calls of the chicks to keep in touch with the adults for their next meal. The main prey of these birds is polar cod, but they do also feed on amphipods and crustaceans.
Later in the afternoon we explored via Zodiac along the breeding cliffs at Kapp Fanshawe. The air was filled with swarming birds flying into the cliff to feed their chicks or going out for more fishing. The ledges are still covered with birds; hard to believe that most likely 50% of the colony has already fledged. How many birds breed here? Maybe 100,000 pairs! A small calculation to realize how productive the sea is in this area: 100,000 pair birds may consume 1,000,000 polar cod per day! They will be here at the breeding cliff for almost 90 days. In addition, they feed the chick for about 2 weeks. There must be an awful lot of polar cod in the area. To see all these chicks setting off for a life at sea for the next 3-5 years is a truly spectacular event.
We also spent some time sailing into Wahlenbergfjorden and further into Palanderbukta. The latter is named after Baron Adolf Palander, who spent many years as captain sailing on different Arctic expeditions. The most famous was with the ship Vega, 1878-79, the first ship ever to sail the Northeast Passage.
Here at Palanderbukta we saw the Arctic desert but best of all, on an ice floe we spotted two giant bull walrus, and the Captain took us close enough to marvel at their size and enormous tusks; what an extraordinary animal.
After dinner we used the 24 hours of daylight to sail along one of the larger glacier fronts here at Svalbard, Hinlopenbreen. A busy day, bears at 5 am, then nonstop observations, lectures and food...now comes to end. Time to catch some sleep before another full day to come!
As we made our approach from the north, we suddenly ran into ice. Drifting sea-ice means a potential for ice bears. Several eager eyes spent time searching the ice, but it was the captain who spotted the first bear, as it walked right under the bridge wing! Most of the morning was spent in seven-tenths pack until we had encountered 5 different polar bears, the closest down to 50m off the bow. During breakfast we made our way further south, to find the ice starting to open up. Now we were to experience something unique.
Svalbard is a stronghold for the Brünnich’s guillemot (thick-billed murre in American!). It breeds along steep cliff faces, on very narrow ledges. At around two weeks old, and still unable to fly, the chick jumps into the sea and swims away with a parent. It will actually start its first migration, to escape the winter, by swimming many hundreds of miles. The accompanying parent feeds it for about three more weeks. As we sailed south, the sea was covered with guillemot chicks swimming doggedly behind their fathers. From the deck we could hear the calls of the chicks to keep in touch with the adults for their next meal. The main prey of these birds is polar cod, but they do also feed on amphipods and crustaceans.
Later in the afternoon we explored via Zodiac along the breeding cliffs at Kapp Fanshawe. The air was filled with swarming birds flying into the cliff to feed their chicks or going out for more fishing. The ledges are still covered with birds; hard to believe that most likely 50% of the colony has already fledged. How many birds breed here? Maybe 100,000 pairs! A small calculation to realize how productive the sea is in this area: 100,000 pair birds may consume 1,000,000 polar cod per day! They will be here at the breeding cliff for almost 90 days. In addition, they feed the chick for about 2 weeks. There must be an awful lot of polar cod in the area. To see all these chicks setting off for a life at sea for the next 3-5 years is a truly spectacular event.
We also spent some time sailing into Wahlenbergfjorden and further into Palanderbukta. The latter is named after Baron Adolf Palander, who spent many years as captain sailing on different Arctic expeditions. The most famous was with the ship Vega, 1878-79, the first ship ever to sail the Northeast Passage.
Here at Palanderbukta we saw the Arctic desert but best of all, on an ice floe we spotted two giant bull walrus, and the Captain took us close enough to marvel at their size and enormous tusks; what an extraordinary animal.
After dinner we used the 24 hours of daylight to sail along one of the larger glacier fronts here at Svalbard, Hinlopenbreen. A busy day, bears at 5 am, then nonstop observations, lectures and food...now comes to end. Time to catch some sleep before another full day to come!
