Storfjord & Hornsund, Svalbard
Overnight we retraced our path to the south and rounded the southern tip of Spitsbergen, returning to the west coast. The morning was at sea, navigating widely dispersed pack ice in search of opportunistic wildlife encounters. We were not disappointed. After a brief polar bear encounter, a group of seals was seen on a distant ice floe. We diverted our course for a closer inspection and were well rewarded for doing so. As we approached more and more seals came into view until it was clear that there were a couple of thousand harp seals hauled out on the ice.
The reason for this concentration of animals is not known. Harp seals do not breed in Svalbard waters but migrate here after breeding. So these animals were neither pupping nor mating. The best we can surmise is that they were resting post-migration or between feeding sessions. What we can say is that we were fortunate witnesses to a rarely seen event.
Arriving in Hornsund in mid-afternoon we intended to go ashore, but this plan was thwarted by the presence of a polar bear resting close to our proposed landing. A Zodiac cruise was Plan B but was not a poor second. In beautiful calm and sunny conditions we cruised among ice floes, with mountain peaks reflected in the glassy, ice-choked waters of the fjord. Later another bear was sighted, swimming between floes, perhaps a little curious but not so interested in us, and continued on its way.
Overnight we retraced our path to the south and rounded the southern tip of Spitsbergen, returning to the west coast. The morning was at sea, navigating widely dispersed pack ice in search of opportunistic wildlife encounters. We were not disappointed. After a brief polar bear encounter, a group of seals was seen on a distant ice floe. We diverted our course for a closer inspection and were well rewarded for doing so. As we approached more and more seals came into view until it was clear that there were a couple of thousand harp seals hauled out on the ice.
The reason for this concentration of animals is not known. Harp seals do not breed in Svalbard waters but migrate here after breeding. So these animals were neither pupping nor mating. The best we can surmise is that they were resting post-migration or between feeding sessions. What we can say is that we were fortunate witnesses to a rarely seen event.
Arriving in Hornsund in mid-afternoon we intended to go ashore, but this plan was thwarted by the presence of a polar bear resting close to our proposed landing. A Zodiac cruise was Plan B but was not a poor second. In beautiful calm and sunny conditions we cruised among ice floes, with mountain peaks reflected in the glassy, ice-choked waters of the fjord. Later another bear was sighted, swimming between floes, perhaps a little curious but not so interested in us, and continued on its way.
