Svalbard July 4 – July 24, 2019
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SVALBARD A 21 DAYS POLAR BEAR SPECIAL JULY 4 - 24, 2019 ON BOARD M/S MALMÖ TOUR REPORT PARTICIPANTS Guests: Crew: Guides & Charterers: Bill Wirt Johannes Malmlund, captain Morten Jørgensen, guide & charterer Derek Holwill Lars Palm, chief officer Nozomi Takeyabu, guide & charterer Duncan Muir Johan Uddebrant, chief engineer Rinie van Meurs, expedition leader Graham Boulnois Christian Cocozza, chef Isa Jauss Jonathan Persson, AB Jenny Varley Karl Jonsson, AB JoAnne Simerson Lisa Rundberg, stewardess Richard Barrett Björn Arnemo, steward Rita Fryer Tolitha Lewis SUMMARY This 2019 marathon NozoMojo polar bears on ice odyssey, the second we have undertaken, was in many ways very different from our 2017 20-night voyage. The vessel was the same, and three of the guests too, but ev- erything else was different... The ice this year was relentless in its grip of the east, caus- ing us to spend just under half our time north of Spits- bergen and Nordaustlandet, only as far east as Sjuøyane (The Seven Islands), and more than half of our time in Hinlopenstretet and immediate surrounds. We had an outstanding amount of calm weather, which interchange- ably came with fog or with very clear conditions and ex- cellent visibility. As can be read below, our polar bear count was not too bad at all, with a few really excellent sighting and several intriguing repeat sightings of the same bears, sometimes in different locations. Our best bear sightings were on remnant fast ice or on land. The northern pack-ice mostly held old males. We noticed a lack of female bears with COYs and a strong overweight of male (usually disinterested) bears. We had a pletho- ra of opportunities to enjoy other species, such as most of the common seal species (albeit with harp seal nota- bly almost missing), and we had interesting and unusual sightings of several others, including narwhal, hooded seal and northern gannet. Our bird species count of 19 for this voyage is very moderate, but what with the en- tire focus being on finding bears perhaps not surprising. Registering a total of 14 mammal species is however not bad at all. A third special purpose 20-night voyage is al- ready in the making. Ice chart at the beginning of the voyage DIARY WITH ITINERARY AND WEATHER JULY 4: Longyearbyen - Isfjorden - N to the NW corner of Spitsbergen Sunny, light winds from variable directions, 10°C/50°F, clear. Almost everyone was collected from various hotels in town by a maxi taxi with trailer and delivered to the M/S Malmö at 4.00 pm. Jenny, Graham and Richard arrived on foot. By approximately 5.00 pm, we were under way, and we gathered to have a brief introduction to the crew, after which we had a safety briefing and drill by Lars. We were then going to meet again, but two blows from an elusive blue whale delayed things. Just before dinner time we got the staff introductions done, and Rinie described the trip plans so far by saying only a few key words – we are going north to the ice! Dinner was delayed by some 40 minutes by wine ordering, and was then also continued well into the late hours of the evening by much talking. There are tremendous anticipations and very high spirits on board. The weather today was delightful, sunny and warm, mild and clear. What a promising beginning! July 5: Smeerenburg & Virgohamna - N to the ice edge and W for a few hours, then E Morning sunny with scattered cloud, afternoon gradually more veiled over; f2-3 N easing to no wind, later up to f4 ENE but easing again evening to almost still from N, 6-10°C/43-50°F, clear. Before, during and after breakfast, we were sur- rounded by superb views of all the mountain peaks of the NW corner of Spitsbergen. We were in Smeerenburgfjorden, and came to an- chor just off Amsterdamøya. We were briefed by Rinie and Morten after breakfast, and then got ourselves ready for the first Zodiac excur- sion. We first landed at Smeerenburg, where we idled up to the 20+ mostly sleeping most- ly adult male walruses. While they did nothing much, the morning was never-the-less wonder- ful in these pleasant conditions. Blubber oven foundation remains, driftwood, lots to look at on the ground, and magnificent mountain and glacier views all around. Eventually, we got into the boats again and headed over to a little cove on the N coast of Danskøya, where at first 11 and ultimately 16 harbour / common seals were relaxing. We spent almost an hour and a half with them, and enjoyed not least observing the close bond between two females with their very, very young pups. It was still, calm, quiet – a unique moment in the high Arctic. Before coming back on board, we stopped by two male walruses that had arrived offshore from the main haul- out and were rolling about in the water. After lunch, we began our journey further N – onward towards the ice. Before we reached the ice edge, we had brief views of a mother and calf pair of fin whales. At the ice edge, we turned W, to give it a chance. The ice was beautiful, large and white, some places piled up in pressure ridg- es and hummocks, other places consisting of large flat pans. We didn’t find any bears or even foot-prints, but we did over the course of the late afternoon and the evening see more than a dozen ringed seals, a cou- ple of bearded seals, and just before we turned the ship just after 9 pm, one flock of some 10 harp seals. That brought the day’s total to five seal species, pretty much full plate for Svalbard. July 6: E across just N of Spitsbergen & Nordaustlandet - Sjuøyane (the Seven Islands) Sunny with partial high and mostly thin cloud; N of Wijdefjorden and Hinlopenstretet f6-7 SSE about 6-9 am, otherwise the rest of the day f0-2; 3-8°C/36-47°F degrees, clear. Our day began somewhat violently when at around 06.15 am, we simultaneously hit a strong almost gale force wind coming out of Wijdefjorden and later Hinlopenstretet, while we also turned onto a northerly course and thus were rolled around in open water for a while. But it was all temporary, and already later in the morning we were in quite the opposite situation, we were in flat calm conditions and surrounded by open drift-ice. A highlight of the morning was our slow approach – and subsequent retreat from – a trio of walruses on a small ice-floe, female with pup-of-the-year plus one other adult – maybe the pup’s older sib- ling? The light was just gorgeous on them, and we were happy to be able to leave them again undisturbed. Over the entire rest of the day, right up until 9.30 pm, we scanned the ice for bears. There were patches of more open ice, at other times we were near fast-ice, or simply the edge of very consolidated drift ice. We encountered more walruses here and there, and noted close to 10 ringed seals as well, but not bears. The views were all day gorgeous, the clouds were interesting, the Seven Islands were splendid, and the ice was beautiful. We were turned around near the S end of Maartensøya, and later came to anchor off the W side of Phippsøya. A good starting point for our continued search for bears along the ice edge tomorrow. July 7: Sjuøyane (Seven Islands) - W until parked in pack-ice at 80° 44’ N and 016° 08’ E. Overcast, f0-2 variable mostly SW, 5-1°C/41-34°F, clear. After breakfast, we departed from the W side of Phippsøya under windless conditions. It was now overcast and a very grey day, al- though the light in the distance was bright for some hours. We soon met the edge of very compacted pack-ice, and for the duration of the day it would be fair to describe that we generally travelled W with open water on our port side and 9-10/10 heavy pack-ice on our starboard. Soon after dinner, we parked by going almost two nautical miles into the ice and stopping the engine. It was a long and rather cold day of scanning, the temperature dropped since morning and mostly hovered around 1°C/34°F. Overall, it was a very quiet day despite good visibility and vast amounts of ice. We noted some 15+ ringed, 2 bearded and one group of about 5 harp seals. The first excitement came when an Arctic fox was seen running across the floes near the edge. It was very white still, but beginning to moult into a summer coat. Seemingly somewhat lost, it just kept going, and we could only hope for it that it succeeds in making landfall, perhaps on Sjuøyane. Then, finally, after 5.00 pm, our first bear. Seen first at the distance sleeping, but near the ice edge, we inched closer over a good long time. The bear began sniffing the air actively, then after a while got up and --- limped away! We clearly saw that he, a handsome male in his best age, was seriously wounded, no blood or gashes visible, but a bump above the right paw as well as his limping indicated a broken wrist. We imme- diately stopped and soon after departed the scene, in order to leave him to not be moving more than he wanted.