In the Pack Ice, South Of Hinlopen Strait
A day exploring pack ice is perhaps the quintessential polar experience. The navigation of the ship through the ice is a highly skilled endeavour and should not be undertaken lightly. We have all seen the images of ships such as Endurance beset in pack ice, their crews stranded. Of course, Shackleton did not have the advantages of the modern satellite technology that provides us with daily updates of ice charts, showing the density of the pack ice around the Svalbard archipelago. Nor did he have the Global Positioning Satellite that tells us exactly where we are at any moment. Plus, a thick steel hull containing engines with 3,200 horsepower are another distinct bonus. But even with these advantages, navigation in pack ice is not for the faint hearted.
The sight of the wide expanse of frozen ocean is quite unlike any other, and exploring it is not just exciting to hear and feel the ship muscle and crash its way through the pack. In both the Arctic and the Antarctic, the frozen ocean is home to many of the wildlife species we hope to see when visiting these areas.
We may find seabirds such as the ivory gull, but these are but a temporary diversion as it is marine mammals that we are really looking for such as bearded seals or walrus hauled out on the ice, or a whale surfacing in a lead. And the pack ice is the domain of isbjorn, the ice bear. Today we spent the day (and with the sun never setting at 79° North that means all 24 hours of the day) searching the ice for wildlife, and thanks to the sharp eyes of our naturalists and crew we found a number of bears. With a stealthy approach (in as much as a 300 foot vessel can be stealthy, yet more a credit to the officers) we were able to obtain some up close views of these awesome animals in their natural environment with a minimal amount of disturbance to their routine. This was exemplified by an encounter with a mother and two cubs, fully aware of our approach but never feeling the need to move from their small ice floe, occasionally raising their heads, watching us watching them.
A day exploring pack ice is perhaps the quintessential polar experience. The navigation of the ship through the ice is a highly skilled endeavour and should not be undertaken lightly. We have all seen the images of ships such as Endurance beset in pack ice, their crews stranded. Of course, Shackleton did not have the advantages of the modern satellite technology that provides us with daily updates of ice charts, showing the density of the pack ice around the Svalbard archipelago. Nor did he have the Global Positioning Satellite that tells us exactly where we are at any moment. Plus, a thick steel hull containing engines with 3,200 horsepower are another distinct bonus. But even with these advantages, navigation in pack ice is not for the faint hearted.
The sight of the wide expanse of frozen ocean is quite unlike any other, and exploring it is not just exciting to hear and feel the ship muscle and crash its way through the pack. In both the Arctic and the Antarctic, the frozen ocean is home to many of the wildlife species we hope to see when visiting these areas.
We may find seabirds such as the ivory gull, but these are but a temporary diversion as it is marine mammals that we are really looking for such as bearded seals or walrus hauled out on the ice, or a whale surfacing in a lead. And the pack ice is the domain of isbjorn, the ice bear. Today we spent the day (and with the sun never setting at 79° North that means all 24 hours of the day) searching the ice for wildlife, and thanks to the sharp eyes of our naturalists and crew we found a number of bears. With a stealthy approach (in as much as a 300 foot vessel can be stealthy, yet more a credit to the officers) we were able to obtain some up close views of these awesome animals in their natural environment with a minimal amount of disturbance to their routine. This was exemplified by an encounter with a mother and two cubs, fully aware of our approach but never feeling the need to move from their small ice floe, occasionally raising their heads, watching us watching them.
