Arctic pack ice and polar bears — what a day!

By Glen Bruels
This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022
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By the next morning, the pack ice had thickened and we got a chance to see the ship’s icebreaker bow in action.  At 6:40 am, the Expedition Leader made an announcement that there was a polar bear off our starboard bow, about 150 yards out.  It was a young male who had made a kill of a bearded seal.  We just sat there for about an hour watching him chow down on his meal.  It was alternatively violent and dainty as he cleaned his paws periodically and would bend down to drink from an ice melt puddle.  Our first bear — hopefully there will be more!

Waking up to some pack ice. Things were starting to close in a bit.
It’s starting to get a little thicker too…
A view from the ship’s drone. Of course, this was taken the week before because shortly after this, the photographer splashed the drone…
So what do we see off our starboard bow, but a young male feeding on a kill!
He was really working to get the blubber and skin — the two richest parts of the seal.
We continued to travel north and break our way through the pack ice.

By noon, we were at 81 degrees, 31 minutes (approximately 500 miles from the North Pole).  It was time for anyone who wanted to try to take the Polar Plunge.  The Expedition Leader asked me if I was going to go and I said not unless the doctor was there with a crash cart.  He told me that was exactly what was happening.  Then I gave him some other lame excuse to avoid the plunge.  One comment that reinforced my decision not to go was that the water temperature (29 degrees F) was the same as when the Titanic went down… Later, while we were up on the bridge for a navigation presentation, one of our group pointed out yet another polar bear.  This time, she wandered around an ice floe, looking and sniffing at us.  How did we know it was a female?  She had a pee stain on her backside — it’s a dead giveaway! She then swam over to a series of other floes.  It was amazing!

One of our group then saw something on the ice. At first, she thought it was a seal, but it turned out to be a young female bear.
She was checking us out for a quite a while before taking a dip!
Off she went into the water and was swimming very strongly.
She would frequently stop and check us out.
Ultimately, she found herself a seat. BTW, the yawning behavior she is exhibiting is not because she is tired or bored; she’s uncomfortable…

We sighted yet another polar bear that was feeding on a kill.  He was very interested in us and spent a lot of time sniffing and staring at us.  A couple of Ivory Gulls stayed nearby the bear, waiting for their share of the kill.  Given that last week, the Venture only saw one bear that was more or less lolling around, I’d say we did really well.  The Expedition Leader noted that it is extremely rare to see a polar bear feeding on a kill — we saw two!  We are now heading south back towards Svalbard.

Our second male eating a seal. They try to keep themselves clean while eating, but they can’t see their snouts, so they stay “dirty.”
A couple of Ivory Gulls waiting their turn to scavenge. These are pretty rare birds to see!
He kept sniffing the air to make sure that no other bear might try to horn in on his kill.
This entry was posted in Cruising, Norway, Svalbard, Travel
Glen Bruels

I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.

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