Southeastern Svalbard, Russebukta (Russian Bay), Edgeøya (Edge Island)
We spent last night and this morning within the open body of water called Storfjord, actually a large bay constrained by Barentsøya and Edgeøya to the east and southern Spitsbergen to the west. We anchored off the western coastline of Edgeøya during breakfast and chose a place called Russebukta to go ashore for some exploration on foot. The green landscape is made up of rolling tundra which contains numerous small lakes and ponds. Once ashore, we found the greenery is actually thick, dense moss beds, interspersed with growths of ground-hugging dwarf Arctic willows, colorful clumps of moss campions, and various species of flowering saxifrages. Along the coastline and exposed within the moss beds one encounters bits of the ancient Palaeozoic bedrock, which is composed of glacially-smoothed dolerite. See photo A.
Several ponds were found just a short distance behind the landing, one of which was being used as a protective site by molting pink-footed geese. When the birds are in this state, that is, growing in new feathers, they must endure a few weeks of flightlessness, and this puts them in real danger from the local predators, especially the Arctic fox. In fact, we found plenty of evidence of preyed-upon geese remains scattered about. Several other bird species were also seen.
As we hiked around, the ground seemed to give and even bounce under our weight, because the moss is essentially waterlogged. Precipitation over much of the Arctic is actually very low…usually less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of water equivalence each year, so by definition most of the Arctic qualifies as a desert. This is somewhat surprising to most people, because during the short summer season the Arctic tundra usually contains plenty of water in the form of puddles, ponds, shallow lakes, streams, bogs, and fens…just like what we saw here at Russebukta. As a result, the plant life is amazingly rich and extensive during the short growing season. It all works, because what little moisture does accumulate is conserved at the surface by the underlying soil that’s frozen for most of the year, and even when it warms up in the summer, only the upper-most few centimeters thaw out. So, what little water does manage to accumulate is prevented from sinking deep into the ground by the permafrost just below the surface, hence the extensive wetlands and an abundance of moisture available for plants. A drawback to the ever-present permafrost is it precludes plants from developing large, deep root systems, which contributes to the small, stunted stature of the Arctic plants. In addition to the typical lichens, mosses, and flowering plants we’ve been seeing, we encountered amazing little Arctic willows near the landing.
In the afternoon, we set off southward into the Barents Sea towards Bear Island…tomorrow’s planned destination. However, we didn’t get very far before we happened upon some energetic humpback whales, which we followed for over an hour as they went about their business of feeding. We are always eager to observe humpback whales anywhere in the world, because whenever possible, photographs are taken of their exposed flukes and sent to researchers who use this data to determine their movements around the world and study their population dynamics. See Photo B.
Well, soon after getting back on track, we encountered several sperm whales spread out over relatively shallow waters (at least relative to the deep-diving sperm whales) with a depth of less than 200 meters. They certainly were finding something to feed on…maybe flatfish of some kind. Almost as soon as we left the sperm whales, we sighted some fin whales, and were able to spend some time with them, too, before going to dinner and continuing on our southerly journey.
