Hinlopen Straits, Svalbard
Yesterday we completed our exploration of northernmost Svalbard. Today we began to make our way toward the south, headed for a circumnavigation of the island of Spitsbergen. Our morning stop was at Palanderbukta on Nordaustlandet, the second largest island of Svalbard. As we entered Palanderbukta we were treated to a marine mammal extravaganza: polar bear, walrus, and bearded seals swimming and resting on the ice. Most of Nordaustlandet is still covered by two large icecaps. Only a coastal fringe is free of ice. It has been exposed relatively recently by melting of the ice caps and elevation of land from the sea by the process of isostatic rebound. Driftwood and the remains of marine mammals lying well above the present sea level attest to this. From a distance it appears to be an austere landscape, devoid of life, but look closely and we find quite the contrary. Tiny tundra plants covered with bright flowers are tucked into cracks and depressions where they find water and protection from the stinging polar winds. Mosses and lichens flourish, and through their mat grow white and purple saxifrages, bright yellow buttercups, and delicate-looking pale-yellow Svalbard poppies. It is an exquisite miniature garden.
We entered Hinlopen Straits, a narrow passage between Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet. At Cape Fanshawe on the Spitsbergen side there is an enormous colony of breeding thick-billed murres (or Brünnich’s Guillemots). As we approached we found the water covered with these black and white seabirds and the air filled with their comings and goings. This was but a fraction of the population. As the National Geographic Endeavour made a close approach we found birds packed side by side onto narrow rock ledges, each bird holding a single chick between itself and the face of the cliff to protect it from predatory glaucous gulls and from a premature tumble from the cliff. I can scarcely describe the sight, the sound, and the smell of this colony of some 100,000 breeding pairs. Soon, while still far from fully grown and not yet able to fly, the chicks will be enticed by their fathers to take the ultimate leap of faith and cast themselves from the safety of their ledge into the sea below. If they survive the fall and the attention of predators who await the departure, they will accompany their fathers away from the colony. Thus, the parent bird brings the chick to the food rather than food to the chick at the colony in the fashion of other seabirds. It is a most remarkable breeding system. Judging from the abundance of the birds, it works.
Near Cape Fanshawe is Valhallfonna Glacier. It is a retreating glacier that ends in a smooth, gradual slope up from an exposed rocky moraine. This gave us a rare opportunity to walk on a glacier; usually their rough, crevassed surfaces are too dangerous to cross. Here, too, our yellow inflatable kayaks came out for the first time. Our friends and family will scarcely believe that we paddled ourselves over these cold polar waters, but many did just that.
With that, we headed further into Hinlopen Straits in search of pack ice and the furry white mammals that live and hunt there.
Yesterday we completed our exploration of northernmost Svalbard. Today we began to make our way toward the south, headed for a circumnavigation of the island of Spitsbergen. Our morning stop was at Palanderbukta on Nordaustlandet, the second largest island of Svalbard. As we entered Palanderbukta we were treated to a marine mammal extravaganza: polar bear, walrus, and bearded seals swimming and resting on the ice. Most of Nordaustlandet is still covered by two large icecaps. Only a coastal fringe is free of ice. It has been exposed relatively recently by melting of the ice caps and elevation of land from the sea by the process of isostatic rebound. Driftwood and the remains of marine mammals lying well above the present sea level attest to this. From a distance it appears to be an austere landscape, devoid of life, but look closely and we find quite the contrary. Tiny tundra plants covered with bright flowers are tucked into cracks and depressions where they find water and protection from the stinging polar winds. Mosses and lichens flourish, and through their mat grow white and purple saxifrages, bright yellow buttercups, and delicate-looking pale-yellow Svalbard poppies. It is an exquisite miniature garden.
We entered Hinlopen Straits, a narrow passage between Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet. At Cape Fanshawe on the Spitsbergen side there is an enormous colony of breeding thick-billed murres (or Brünnich’s Guillemots). As we approached we found the water covered with these black and white seabirds and the air filled with their comings and goings. This was but a fraction of the population. As the National Geographic Endeavour made a close approach we found birds packed side by side onto narrow rock ledges, each bird holding a single chick between itself and the face of the cliff to protect it from predatory glaucous gulls and from a premature tumble from the cliff. I can scarcely describe the sight, the sound, and the smell of this colony of some 100,000 breeding pairs. Soon, while still far from fully grown and not yet able to fly, the chicks will be enticed by their fathers to take the ultimate leap of faith and cast themselves from the safety of their ledge into the sea below. If they survive the fall and the attention of predators who await the departure, they will accompany their fathers away from the colony. Thus, the parent bird brings the chick to the food rather than food to the chick at the colony in the fashion of other seabirds. It is a most remarkable breeding system. Judging from the abundance of the birds, it works.
Near Cape Fanshawe is Valhallfonna Glacier. It is a retreating glacier that ends in a smooth, gradual slope up from an exposed rocky moraine. This gave us a rare opportunity to walk on a glacier; usually their rough, crevassed surfaces are too dangerous to cross. Here, too, our yellow inflatable kayaks came out for the first time. Our friends and family will scarcely believe that we paddled ourselves over these cold polar waters, but many did just that.
With that, we headed further into Hinlopen Straits in search of pack ice and the furry white mammals that live and hunt there.
