After breakfast we set out for a three-hour cruise in the zodiacs. We motored to a bay with a large glacier at Holmiabukta, also known as Sallyhamna. We watched the glacier calve, drop big chunks of ice into the ocean, ice thousands of years old. There was more and more floating ice as we approached the base of the glacier. Every icefall stirred up the water where it splashed down, stunning fish and bringing krill to the surface, and drawing birds to the site to feed. The feeders included kittiwakes, guillemots, terns and others. We also saw eider ducks, barnacle geese, northern fulmars, black guillemots, skuas, arctic terns and more. We picked up a big chunk of ice for the bar. We hit one more bay with another glacier where a dead whale, a few years ago, drew a lot of polar bears. The whale is gone, but the bears still come back. We didn’t see any bears, but we got brief glimpses of a solitary seal.
We made it back to the ship after our scheduled three hours for lunch while the ship moved on. In the afternoon the zodiacs took us to Smeerenburg, also known as Blubbertown, on the island of Amsterdamøya, which is the northwest corner of Svarbard. It is a low sandbar where whalers from Holland in the 17th century rendered blubber. Remnants of the pot sites are visible. The bar is also covered with loads of driftwood from Siberian logging and modern plastic trash from the Gulf Stream. We picked up some of the trash. We accidently stumbled into an Arctic tern rookery and were assaulted by the birds until we backed out.
The big excitement on this stop was a small group of walruses, about eight, who lay in a pile on the beach except for one who was foraging for food in the shallow water. Their favorites are clams and mussels [mine too]. The walruses on the beach collect in a tightly packed aggregation with lots of snorting and changing positions.
Then it was back to the ship for Happy Hour and dinner. Jeremy the bartender used the glacial ice for the drinks. The day’s excursions were cold due to the brisk north wind and bumpy zodiac rides in two-foot swells that generated a lot of sea spray.
Radar shows position at 79°49.5' N. Latitude.
Holmiabutka glacier [butka means bay] with zodiac for scale. The bluer ice contains less air and is more recently exposed by calving of ice from in front of it. Glaciers do a lot of creaking and groaning when you're near, and before/while calving roar like thunder.
Black Guillemot.
Black-legged Kittiwake, a gull, in the middle, landing on the ice. There were hundreds hanging around the glacier.
Holmiabutka glacier when the sun almost came out and the wind relented for a moment.
Smeerenburg, our ship off the shore and under the cloud bank. Lots of driftwood here. These are the only trees on Svarbard.
Arctic Tern at nesting colony. These birds summer here and winter in Antarctica, that's some commute.
Walrus feeding in the shallows.
Walrus on the beach. Is that a scrum or a huddle?
No comments:
Post a Comment