Sea Day, take two.
Our days at sea always seem to go quickly. This morning we had time to learn about seabirds from Santiago Imberti and to learn about a new project, sponsored by Lindblad Expeditions, about the lives of northerners all around the world. It’s called Meet the North, conducted by naturalist and journalist Jennifer Kingsley. In the afternoon we studied seals with Ian Bullock and capped it off with a Recap about everything from undersea life to working on assignment for National Geographic Traveler.
The presentations, of course, are just one aspect of a day at sea. Our charts remind us of the remarkable place we find ourselves—still in the high latitudes, on the eastern edge of the western hemisphere, with no land in sight. Yet this mix of water and ice is still a remarkable habitat. There is enough zooplankton to feed massive bowhead whales, and the ice itself is habitat for one of the planet’s super predators, the polar bear. Seabirds, like fulmars, found their way to our ship, and the fog stayed away all day.
During the late afternoon, as we wound through another patch of sea ice off the east coast of Greenland, we discovered a dense group of harp seals. It was remarkable to see so many together and to wonder just what had brought them here . . . instead of somewhere over there.
As our day wound down, naturalist Eduardo Shaw reminded us of the beauty of our surroundings with a reading from poet Pablo Neruda (we love Eduardo’s penchant for poetry). Here’s a snippet:
Soliloquy in the Waves
Yes, but here I am alone.
A wave / builds up, / perhaps it says its name, I don’t understand,
it mutters, humps in its load / of movement and foam / and withdraws.
Who / can I ask what it said to me?
Who among the waves / can I name?
