Palanderbukta
Exploring the Arctic wilderness of Svalbard beneath the waters of the Barents Sea is always a hit and miss proposition. A few intrepid Norwegians have done some diving here, there have been a few excellent scientific studies and through my own experience diving here over the past three seasons a few sites and common organisms have become familiar. Nevertheless, every time I get into the water – and particularly when I send our ROV down to greater depth – I really have no idea what to expect.
Woodfjorden, one of the great flooded valleys which cut into the north coast of Spitzbergen, is known for its clear, warm waters, although warm is a rather relative term. Hot springs along a geothermally active fault here affect the water temperature, sometimes raising it as high as a balmy 35ºF! Last season I was able to do a dive here on a rocky shelf off a small island. This year, however, there were a number of polar bears in the area as we cruised by, so I chose to explore a new site a little further south and here I found a remarkably different marine environment.
Descending through the clear water – which registered a relatively chilly 32ºF – I encountered and filmed a number of familiar planktonic animals, including ctenophores (comb jellies), pteropods (sea butterflies) and amphipods. When I finally reached the bottom at 95 feet it turned out to be pure soft silt, inhabited by a variety of benthic organisms which I had not encountered before. Strange sea stars of several species lay scattered across the surface while between them sprouted bushy crinoids (feather stars) like the one pictured. Their plant-like appearance belies their true animal nature – they are even capable of “uprooting” themselves and walking away on their feathery arms. As I swam over the bottom, careful to disturb as little silt as possible, tube-dwelling anemones retreated into the shelter of their burrows in the muck. These were also an unfamiliar species, not described in any of the field guides or literature that I have been able to find. Were they an undescribed species, new to science? Well, at least they were new to me!
Later, and farther east, I used the ROV to explore an even lesser known world beneath the calm waters of Palanderbukta, a fjord in the west coast of Nordaustlandet. Two hundred feet below the silty surface water our camera looked into a realm of eternal darkness under the midnight sun. Delicate soft corals and brightly colored anemones, perfectly at home in this icy water, anchored themselves among the cobbles on the bottom. Two species of pycnogonids (sea spiders), the first I have seen in Svalbard, picked their way slowly over the rocks. Best of all, the cuttlefish shown in the second picture left its hiding place and swam ahead of the ROV for a few moments, rippling its filmy fins as it disappeared into the blackness. Its true, exploring Svalbard’s marine environment is hit and miss; but sometimes we really hit it.
