POLAR BEARS AND NO MAN'S LANDS

DINNER VIEW OF DRIFTING ICEBERGS

THE FRAM BUSTING THROUGH
THE MULTI-YEAR ICE

Double click on pictures to enlarge: 
Above the 80th parallel north is considered to be"No Man's Land"  where only water and ice exist," it is less than 600 miles to the North Pole, and is where the real action begins for finding Polar Bears. But to get there we had to plow the Expedition ship through the ice, passing towering icebergs as tall as the 7 story ship, and praying we didn't hit one of the big guys.

STEPHEN OUR GEOLOGIST
USING A GPS SHOT TO EXPLAIN
THE---RED
MULI-YEAR ICE

Torrey my daughter, and I were on the expedition ship called the Fram, named after the ship used by the famous Norwegian explorer Amundsen who conquered the South Pole. As we sat down to dinner the captain announced we need to break through the ice if we are going to to see polar bears and then make it around the island of Spitsbergen, Norway. We were all the edge of our seats, as the Fram, a class one Ice Breaker sheared the multi-year ice pack and pushed it aside, avoiding

POLAR BEAR 50 YARDS FROM
THE FRAM

major icebergs along the way.  Every once in-awhile we would hit a large chunk of ice several feet thick that would jar the ship sideways and send a a rapturous crackling sound through its bowels. After a few of these major collisions, Torrey who was on the ship called the "Explorer" that sunk in the Antarctica, just 8 years ago, turned to me and said, "Dad, this is just how it sounded before our ship hit the big one and we sank! She had my attention. And just at the moment the ship's captain called out Polar Bear on the port side at 1,500 yards! the engines went silent as we glided through the ice.
We left our sumptuous dinners' sitting, and all 199 passengers swarmed to the rails to get a better view. There he was jumping from ice flow to ice flow, not even paying attention to the ship as we drifted up to within 100 yards.
We then proceeded to break through the ice for the next 4 hours, it felt like an out of this world experience, we were encased in the semi broken ice, with giant glaciers in the distance, and the seemingly endless gray horizon. We saw several of these magnificent creatures lumbering along, the captain would promptly quiet the engines so we would drift by them.  The solitary polar bears were curious or indifferent and for the most part going about their business, and at one point a polar bear came within 50 yards of the starboard side and posed for us. He plodded along on one piece of ice after another, and eventually gazed look up at us like...  hmmm what the hell are you doing here.
LITTLE BACKGROUND ON POLAR BEARS: The largest of all the bears weighing up to 2,200 lbs and 11 feet tall. This a true marine mammal and can swim several hundred miles in the open ocean. The polar bear feeds on ringed seals and they have the ability to smell up to 20 miles away, and can tract the smell of female polar bears on ice up to 2 miles with specially adapted papillae on their feet. They basically are found only on the multi-year sea ice--this ice exists for more than one year, (the red color in the picture above). Once the polar bear locates the ringed seal on the ice he will stalk it for hours and then pounce on it or drag it out of it's hole, we saw this polar bear dragging the ringed seal across the ice flows.

RINGED SEAL KILL

RINGED SEALS, SPECIALLY
ADAPTED CLAWS THAT
CAN PULL THEMSELVES
ON ICE

The ringed seals are full of fat and keeps the polar bear's appetite satisfied for 3-4 days. The original polar bear separated from the a common ancestry with the brown bear about 125,000 years ago. Once they started to hunt on ice, where you can find ringed seals year round, they didn't need to hibernate any longer and only do a light "winter sleep" allowing the polar bear to hunt ringed seals at any time of the year.

THE STAKES OF SURVIVAL:  Polar bears have a tough road ahead of them for several reasons:

1. Their main food supply the ringed seal only lives on the multi-year ice. The multi-year ice according to Morten Jorgensen who wrote: "Polar Bears on the Edge" has diminished by 40% from 1988-2012, and backed by the data from NASA-----Here is an excellent visual reference site by NASA--with several well illustrated graphs:
http://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/

2. Jorgensen also states: Poaching, and legal killing is still going on in some parts of the world: Every day almost 3 polar bears are still killed, and average since 1973 of 855 every year. In some countries like Canada and Greenland it is legal and has become part of the trophy hunting industry. And poaching is a big problem in Russian. 

3. An 11' tall polar bear pelt in 2013 was sold in Canada at a fur harvesting auction in 2013 for $20,000 U.S. dollars.

GLACIERS IN SVALBARD

4. Oil exploration is just waiting for Arctic to warm up so they can start drilling for the large reserves below the sea. Some of the current studies focus on how close they drill next to the polar bear dens and not disturb the mother's and their cubs. 

5. According to Stian our guide: 60% of the Svalbard region is covered by glaciers and 90% of those are depleted. Remember many of these glaciers are 10,000 years old

TORREY WALKING
TOWARD A GLACIER

HURTIGRUTEN EXPEDITION SHIP

GLACIER WALKING AND LANDINGS: One of the cool things offered by Hurtigruten were the landings by the zodiacs. They not only offered kayaking, but some interesting hikes. Torrey I took a hike that made you feel like you were surrounded by glaciers.

One of my favorite days on the trip is when I hiked on a cold glacier (these are on permafrost-and is subject to more surging) led by our guide Stian. 

ROPED TOGETHER WITH CRAMPONS ON,
WE WALKED ON TOP OF THE GLACIER
WITH OUR GUIDES

WE ALWAYS HAD GUIDES
WITH 30-06 PROTECTING
US AGAINST A WAYWARD
POLAR BEAR- IN THIS CASE
SHE HAD 2 GUNS!

We were all issued crampons and then tied together. Like a surrealistic scene from Mars the undulated surface waffled before us and a rushing river screamed by us on the way to the sea. Along the way we even saw a moulin, a giant hole that penetrates all the way to the bottom of the glacier.

AN AMAZING RIVER ON
TOP OF THE
GLACIER

What surprised me was the echoing sounds of the ice calving under the glacier where we walking,  and the hollow glacier network below us creaked like it would cave in and any minute. Stian told me that this glacier was so cavernous he actually climbed through it from the back to the ocean. He also mentioned the glacier starting point from last year had receded by over 100 yards. Elida (pictured above with a nice pair of 30-06s) just turned 22 and is an expert marksmen. Her hobby is the family tradition...trapping the Arctic Fox for the pelts, in her first season last year she trapped 5 with a creative device that crushes the poor little guys with rocks instantly killing the animal.  

A MOULIN, WHERE
WATER GUSHES IN AND
DISAPPEARS TO THE
BOTTOM OF THE
GLACIER

MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT:  I found it very disappointing that our expedition cruise chose to ignore the topic of climate change. Not even offering a lecture to educate people about the latest information from the IPCC. The geologist and a couple of the guides on several occasions stated: "Well, the earth changes over time, therefore, since we don't know exactly the  human impact, we can't really say climate change is not normal." What!!!!  The Arctic and the Antarctica are the canaries of climate change, the heating is amplified in these regions, for every 1 degree of increase of the ambient temperature at the equator it equals 5-7 degree change in the polar regions. The guides had a perfect opportunity to discuss this in their lectures, and how we as species could be more responsible. All they have to do is present the facts from the IPCC ( the international panel on climate change), a panel of scientists from all over the world state that there is a 95% chance that humans have accelerated climate change, backed by a ton of data.  The lecturers could have easily supplemented the talks from the glaciers they personally encounter on their voyages.  Oh yes, the geologist on board mentioned the latest computer models show the possibility of the Arctic being open to commerce as soon as next year!!......WHAT HAPPENED TO 2030 FOR AN ICE FREE ARCTIC. 

NASA SATELLITE PICTURES 1984-2012
OF THE DISAPPEARING MULTI YEAR SEA ICE

Ok, calm down Jerry.... it will be alright, or will it? I just had a baby grand daughter born. Are we really being responsible as an intelligent guardian species of our planet, "making decisions that will protect our children for the next 7 generations", a quote by the great chief Oren Lyon of the Onondaga (Iroquois) nation. I don't think so. So what can we do, for staters join clubs like the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, NRDC, write your congressman, and live our own lives responsibly: car pool, bike, walk, drive hybrid or electric cars, insulate our house, get solar panels, double pain windows, turn the lights out, bring your own shopping bag,  it all starts with each of us.

BULL WALRUSES GET
UP T0
2,650 LBS

OTHER WILDLIFE: We did see some other cool wildlife on one of our landings, including a herd of walruses. These were all  males and they have to swim 600 miles to find their mate. They consume up 125 lbs of clams a day using the whiskers as a guide. Along the way we cruised along these magnificent cliffs called Alkefjellet and saw these colonies of nesting Brunnichs guillemots.

BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOTS

But this best part was getting to have an adventure with my kid, and she gets what is going on in the Arctic.
SUGGESTIONS:
1. Hurtigruten did run a well organized trip: very expensive: $$$$ but worth it. Reservations our needed almost 1 year in advance. Go in the summer it is run out of Spitsbergen, Norway.
2. They provide the jackets
3. They will accommodate all kinds of diets
4. There are lots of shore excursions in zodiacs + they offer kayaking.

ARCTIC TERN THE LONGEST MIGRATING BIRD IN
         THE WORLD FLIES ALMOST TO ANTARCTICA. 
THEY CAN FLY 10 DAYS STRAIGHT, SHUTS OFF
HALF  OF ITS BRAIN TO CONSERVE FUEL.
  

TORREY'S HURTIGRUTEN COMPETITION WINNING PHOTO
OF THE MONACO GLACIER AND THE 2 CAVES WHERE
RIVERS RUSH THROUGH THE GLACIER TO THE SEA AND 
THE 2 ZODIACS FROM THE SHIP IN THE FOREGROUND 
AUGUST 2015

    ACTION PHOTOGRAPHER ASST.
PROFESSOR TORREY TRUST,
SHE TOOK THE POLAR BEAR,
WALRUSES AND BIRD PICTURES