After four very busy and extremely successful days in Svalbard it was time to head southwest towards eastern Greenland. Ahead of us are two full days at sea and we are following the edge of the famous Vestisen (‘West Ice’, named so as it is west of Norway), creeping along the coast of eastern Greenland. It is heavy multi-year sea ice, drifting out from the Arctic Ocean and into the Greenland Sea, which originates from eastern Siberia and guarded the Greenland coast hidden from visitors until recently. Already Frithjof Nansen in 1882 was able to establish the origin of the ice while he was onboard the ship Vikingen, by collecting sediment on the ice, which confirmed it came from northeastern Siberia. He never reached the coast, because of the ice, and returned to Norway very unhappy. Later with a lot of experience and knowledge that would prove to be of immense importance to his career as an Arctic explorer, he became the first to cross the Greenland icecap in 1888.
The first European to ever get close to the coast by penetrating this ice ‘wall’ and sight the northeast coast of Greenland was Henry Hudson in 1607, who got close enough to see some of the peaks, and apply the first ever set place name here, Hold with Hope. Still the thick and heavy sea ice, in summer often imbedded with thick fog, prevented him from reaching land. The first landing had to wait for more than 200 years, and it was the famous British whaling captain, William Scoresby Jr., with his ship Baffin, who finally battled his way through the ice and entered Scoresbysund in 1822.
We were very lucky as we followed the ice pack throughout the day, without any fog, traveling southwest constantly searching for wildlife. A few species were recorded, like large numbers of harp seals, as we entered into the ice. Birds like kittiwakes and fulmars were following our wake, but as a bonus there was a pomarine skua, a puffin and a few Sabine’s gulls making it to our bird list.
Being our first full day at sea it was time to download and deal with all the photos from our busy days in at Svalbard. ‘Delete’ rapidly turns out to be something useful to sort out our best polar bear shots, and to sort up all the pictures taken.
Between our fantastic dining opportunities several interesting presentations were given. Our Global Perspective guest speaker Fen Montainge started in the morning with a presentation around an ever-controversial subject, climate change. For anyone traveling regularly in the Arctic, this is something very evident. Over the last 15 years the glaciers have rapidly been receding at a speed never before seen, and the sea ice has changed its expansion during the height of the summer in a considerable way. It is not a question if we have or not have a climate change, it is, and has always been here since this planet received atmosphere! The current issue is the ‘speed’ of this change, and if this has increased by anthropogenic (human) activities.
The day continued with a presentation about glaciers and ice, given by our resident geologist. And in the late afternoon our National Geographic speaker Krista Rossow gave a talk called ‘On Assignment with National Geographic.’ Well, she never was able to finish, as some large marine creatures suddenly interrupted!
Since early morning, 5 a.m., staff, crew, and guests were up on the bridge constantly searching for whales, with a hope to find the elusive Greenland Whale (bowhead). Finally at 5 p.m. our captain, Leif Skog, sighted some distant blows, which rapidly were confirmed to be the whale. At least two to three animals were feeding in very open ice and slowly we were able to approach this extremely rare animal. Their abundance in the Arctic seas, and being extremely rich with blubber, was the push for the English and Dutch whalers to arrive to Spitsbergen as early as 1612, and finally by 1800, more than 100,000 had been killed in the Arctic North Atlantic. The whale oil from these creatures kept the street lights burning in the ever growing major cities in Western Europe. By 1800 the species was more or less regarded as extinct in the North Atlantic. Over the last years it has been known, using sound recorders that some Greenland whales did survive and live inside the icepack along Northeast Greenland. We were extremely lucky to find a few!
After dinner the ship had to make its way through some ice, and just the sheer sound and vibrations through the ship told everybody; this is very hard multi-year ice. On the ice floes hundreds of resting harp seals were seen. Days at sea can always be very rewarding, but usually demands a lot of patience.
To now have recorded both narwhale and Greenland whale on the same journey makes this voyage unique! We are somehow blessed with luck. What is next?
