At Sea
After leaving Bjornoya, the National Geographic Explorer, made her way south but also a little west in order to find the dropoff! The entire Svalbard archipelago lies on the continental shelf of Europe. To the west there is a sudden and sharp deepening of the North Sea. In fact the deepest spot in the Arctic Ocean is just west of Spitsbergen Island. The water reaches over 18,000 feet deep in this region. At the drop off water currents cause an abundance of food to be produced for such things as whales. Our sharp eyes on the bridge managed to find several members of an elusive species, the sperm whale. These males of this largest of the toothed whales group make their living diving to great depths in search of squid. They are elusive due to their long dive times and short surface intervals. We happened upon a few as they were reoxygenating their bodies and then showing their tell tale flukes before the next trip to the abyss.
There also were lectures to attend and time to process the many photos taken in the ice during the first days of our expedition. The clouds and sea looked different and the temperature was rising as well. It was warm enough to spend some time on deck and the occasional rainbow from the ships deck or your own private balcony.
