Svalbard part 15

Svalbard part 15

9 July 2003:
Today we got up at 2 o 'clock in the morning. We got up so early to search the shores for walruses. It was still totally light outside, something I'm getting used to it by now. About 3 o 'clock we could see Polarpunt at the horizon. This is a place were the walruses are seen regularly. The captain looked through his binoculars and said, "They are there". And he was right, you could see an orange spot on the beach. When we came closer we could clearly see the walruses. We ran back to the rooms to wake up all the other students. The captain moved the boat onto the sand so we could look at the walruses.

Walrusses

The walruses were not shy at all. Two of them were swimming in the water, the others were resting on the beach. Walruses are impressive animals with a huge amount of fat.

Walrusses

One of the walruses in the water was taking a bath and scratching his back on the bottom. He was splashing a lot of water. The walruses on the beach were mostly sleeping and sometimes they turned around or hit each other with their flippers.

Walrusses

Someone climbed the mast of the boat to count them. There were 36 walruses in total. In the 17th century there were many thousands of walruses around Svalbard. But due to excessive hunting the walruses almost became extinct. In 1952 they became a protected species, with only about 100 walruses left by then. Since then the population has slowly increased and there are about 1000 walruses on Svalbard now.

Walrusses

After twenty minutes we had to leave again to continue our journey to the north. We stayed outside for a while before we went to bed again.

Generalfjella

At 8 o 'clock we got up for the second time that day. After a delicious breakfast we boarded the zodiac to go ashore at Generalfjella.

Ice in the sea

Pieces of ice were floating everywhere in the fjord, having came from a nearby glacier. It was a very spectacular view. Seeing them made me feel like I was really in the arctic. Today was another long day of fieldwork, but it was great to work at such a beautiful location. When you looked around you could see the puffins flying over the sea and the Arctic Skua flying above the land. We also saw a Great Skua again.

Glacier (close to Generalfjella)

After the fieldwork we returned to the boat for dinner. During dinner the boat moved towards the glacier where we were to have an evening excursion. It was an impressive glacier, at least 10 meters high. The trip was wonderful. We got on shore close to a large birdcliff. The vegetation under it was very green compared to the rest of Svalbard. On shore we discovered that there was a Bearded Seal on a piece of ice floating in front of the glacier. We couldn't get very close to it at the time because we had another excursion to make first.

Bearded Seal

Luckily, the seal was still there after the hike so when our guide picked us up to return to the boat we asked him if we could go past the seal. He agreed!

Bearded Seal

We approached it very slowly and turned off the engine. The zodiac floated towards the seal. It had noticed our approach but didn't show any interest in us. We slowly moved closer and closer.

Bearded Seal (look at the mustache!)

We came so close that we could touch the ice that the seal was floating on. It was really great to see such a big wild animal from such short distance. Bearded Seals can become up to 8 feet long. The seal gets its name from their impressive mustache, which you can see on the last picture.