We spent the day in Hinlopen Strait, a long, narrow body of water that separates the two largest islands of the Svalbard archipelago, Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet (Northeast Island). It runs on a northwest-southeast line, has a length of about 110 miles, and varies in width between six and 32 miles. The early morning found us near Kapp Fanshawe, located on the west side of Hinlopen Strait near Lomfjorden. The cape is marked by the high cliffs of Alkefjellet, which host one of the largest concentrations of nesting seabirds in Svalbard. At least 60,000 pairs of Brünnich’s guillemots nest on the vertical cliffs, along with a smattering of kittiwakes and glaucous gulls. The geological setting of the cape is unique and has been used in many textbooks to illustrate geological relationships. Gray, horizontal layers of sedimentary rocks that include shale and sandstone underlie the cliffs. These were deposited during the late Carboniferous Period, approximately 300 million years ago. The sedimentary layers were intruded by dark-colored magma approximately 140 million years ago during a phase of crustal extension. The captain and chief officer brought the bow of our ship right up near to the cliff face for a really close-up view of the rocks and nesting seabirds (Figure A).
We entered Wahlenberg Fjord (across Hinlopen Strait due east of Kapp Fanshawe) just after breakfast and the vessel maneuvered through both open water and scattered ice floes. There was much beautiful scenery in the background of Nordaustlandet, including great views of heavily-eroded sedimentary rocks that date from the Carboniferous Period to the Cretaceous Period (345-65 BC). However, the most exciting sighting in the fjord waters had to be the half dozen or so different pods of narwhals. These small whales are rarely seen in Svalbard and are true ice whales…they have no dorsal fins to encumber them when cruising about in heavy pack ice. We estimated about 30 animals in total and as far as we could tell, all the animals we saw were females and young, because no males with their diagnostic spiral tusks were observed.
Deep inside Wahlenberg Fjord we got into some heavy pack ice and spotted our first polar bear. The bear indicated almost immediately that he was interested in us and slowly lumbered in our direction. By the time we eased up into the densest region of ice, he met us and walked around our bow as he investigated the ship. There was excitement in the air as people snapped literally thousands of photographs from all the forward decks (Figure B). After a long visit, he slowly walked away and we moved off and continued cruising the ice. It wasn’t long before we spotted another lone bear on the ice, and almost unbelievably, he also started approaching our vessel. So, we eased into the pack ice and waited as he walked right over to the ship and checked us out. Two polar bears visited us within one hour…this is what we call quality bear sightings!
By mid-afternoon we had reached an anchorage deep inside Sorg Fjord, which means Sorrow Fjord. It is so named because an incident occurred here in the middle 17th century when three French warships arrived here and attacked a Dutch whaling operation in the bay. At the time, about 30 Dutch ships were in attendance and many of them were captured before they had a chance to flee. Some years later, the various European whaling interests worked out acceptable zones of operation, but the whaling days didn’t last much longer before the Bowhead or Greenland right whales were essentially extirpated. We landed on an elongated pebble beach (probably an ancient glacial moraine) near a promontory and offered several hikes that explored the rocky overlook and examined a couple large cairns and numerous old graves from the whaling days. As a matter of interest, a mother polar bear and her cub were sighted far down along the shoreline and thankfully walked in the opposite direction from our landing.
With these sunlit nights, there was still plenty of cruising to be had after dinner. We continued northward, encountering lots more scattered ice and several bearded seals on the ice floes, and reached our farthest north position of the voyage at about 10 p.m.…80º 42.8' N, 015º 54.8' E.
