Today, I woke with a smacker of a migraine so slept for an extra hour in the morning – believe it is the whiteness/brightness of the Arctic causing such a reaction ….. our ship gently carved her way through some floating ice today which I looked down on – WOW, the stunning blueness deep under the ocean, completely stunning!
Question: are others aboard sharing my love for the beauty of an iceberg!
Lectures on mammals and birds, most informative, oh, and did I mention, we today saw a BLUE WHALE! Nowhere near the size of the one we saw in Tadoussac (which amidst the mist resembled a scene from Scooby Doo!) and apparently young, but it sent out a little jet which was sweet and a good effort!
FACTS:
Now it would seem the female Polar Bear have a smaller head and are less broad than males; numbers increasing very much as hunting banned in some areas – Cub tends to stay with mum for a couple of years as they learn to hunt etc), wandering about ice areas as loves the cold and seals! As ice melts, seals have less places to rest and polar bears have to go further to find them. It is unknown how long they live as man hunting has skewed data. Seems biggest risk to mankind is the old bears and newly left cubs who might be hungry and simply grab nearest thing, together with ‘man’ going ashore and checking land for bears but not circling the ocean/land edge where awaiting bears return to shore following a swim!
Our guys apparently have covered …. they do both, send scout party out before we leave ship, have flares which also send a loud bang to initially scare bear and guns at last resort – never used . Only females hibernate, can get pregnant in winter but delay start of baby gestation to time birth accurately for spring – seals are the same it seems ….. did you know puffin molt their winter beaks to a less colourful one??
So, we are now heading off to another icy area which apparently has a lot of seal and bears BUT another ship was there 2 days ago and couldn’t get through the ice so had to turn back – seems if ice hasn’t moved we will do the same and take another route.
Time to have a cuppa and then don the two pairs of thermals, two pairs of socks, ski trousers, new G expedition coat (which is warmer than ski coat), various fleeces and tshirts, hat, gloves and snood as there are sights on deck to be seen – ‘tis 1 degree, above 80 degrees north, about 500 miles to north pole.
