After leaving Honningsvag we spent a full day crossing the Norwegian Sea to arrive at Longyearbyen in the Svalbard Islands. Longyearbyen was established by an engineer named John Longyear, who opened coal mining operations here in 1906. The town was destroyed by the Nazis in 1943 but rebuilt after World War II. It is the world’s northernmost town with a population of 1000 or more. This was also the northernmost point of our cruise, at 78º22′ north of the Equator, and about 800 miles from the North Pole. We spent two damp, cloudy days here looking for wildlife and admiring the scenery.
Catamaran that took us out of the harbor (on two successive days!) to look for wildlife. We hoped to see seals, walrus, whales, or maybe even a polar bear, but it was not to be. We did, though, see magnificent glaciers, a few small icebergs, different kinds of arctic seabirds, and (from a distance) some bird nesting areas.Confluence of multiple glaciers as they reach the sea. The low, black ridge in front of the glacier is part of a terminal moraine pushed by the ice as it advances. Our guides said that seals were actively feeding in this area, but difficult to sea among the waves. On a sunny day we might have seen some of them hauled out to bask in the sun, but this was not one of those days.Closer view of where the glacier calves into the sea; a dark but beautiful scene. This glacier is moving forward by a few feet each day, but you have to watch in the right spot at the right time to see part of this ice cliff tumble into the water. Ice chunks of all sizes floated in the water near the glacier, but we did not go much closer than this because ice could damage the hull and propellers if we hit a piece hard enough. The water temperature was cold enough that the safety briefing as we left port started with how to climb into an orange thermal survival jump-suit before putting on a life jacket.Fulmar racing our catamaran. Like many of the birds we saw in the Arctic, fulmars were expert at soaring along with our boat, often skimming very close to the water (note the pockmarks of raindrops in the photo above), sometimes seeming to race us on the course forward. An on-board naturalist speculated that fulmars like to find food near boats that catch and process fish. They tend to think that every boat must be a fishing boat, so they hang around looking for what we might toss overboard.Kittiwake, a common type of arctic sea gull. We saw large colonies of these birds nesting on cliffs near Longyearbyen. Close, but not close enough for a good photo of their nests.Sadly, this was the only polar bear we saw. The Svalbard Islands are home to more than a few polar bears; enough that guides are not allowed to take tourists or fishermen outside the town limits unless they have means (rifle, flare gun, etc) to stop a polar bear attack. Some of our friends were on excursions where the guide carried a high-powered rifle; the guide for our dog excursion below carried a flare gun. We were told that the locals leave doors and cars unlocked at all times, and particularly in the winter, in case someone might need to step inside to get away from a bear. So where were the bears? Sea-ice maps that I checked indicated that the north side of the Svalbard Islands still had some sea ice, even in August, so I think the bears were probably up there hunting for seals.It was the wrong time of year to take a dogsled through the snow, but the next best thing was a ride for several miles in a dog-pulled wagon. This was a LOT of fun! The team above had no trouble pulling the guide and six heavy tourists on a road down the coast and back. The dogs were barking wildly, excited to get started, but they were all business once we started down the road. Except for the yellow dog. She was so excited that she was jumping around with nervous energy. Then she pulled with all of her might for the first half mile or so, but then decided she needed a rest. She slowed down and eventually stopped, with the rest of the team voicing their displeasure. Think they would have started taking a bite at her, but the guide brought her up into the wagon to rest. But then a ways further down the road she wanted back into harness to help run. And then after some distance she wanted to rest again. This cycle repeated three or four times while the guide struggled with how to give the dog the right incentives and disincentives.We took three breaks to give the dogs a chance to drink a bit of water and cool off. My favorite tourist loves dogs (hey, we all love dogs) and could not resist the chance to pet a couple of them.Arctic tern carrying a small fish to feed its fledglings. Terns nest on the ground, and it is easy to intrude on the nesting areas without realizing it. Until the terns start flying at you (or the dogs) to try to chase you out of the area. At least they came close enough for pictures!Winter weather conditions make it difficult to move coal from mines to storage piles from which it is loaded onto ships. For many years the mining companies used this tramway system to pull buckets along suspension cables. Loaded buckets went from the mine to the docks and empties went back the other way. Some of the tramways still stand, but now the coal moves by truck. Only one mine still produces coal, though. What kind of coal is worth producing in such a remote location? That would be coking coal, a low-sulfur, relatively clean coal used for making coke to burn with iron ore to produce iron.Portal to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. This temperature- and humidity-controlled underground facility stores hundreds of thousands of all kinds of seeds against the possibility of a global catastrophe. What kind of catastrophe? Imagine that a major volcanic eruption (or asteroid strike) darkens the atmosphere and suddenly changes the climate for a decade or maybe a century. Think of the Little Ice Age, for example. Wheat, corn, bean, and other crop hybrids upon which we all rely no longer grow very well in the new climate. At that point we have to go back to earlier varieties, perhaps “heirloom” seeds, and develop new hybrids. This secure vault (and a handful of similar vaults in other parts of the world) stores the seeds we would need to restart our agriculture.This high ridge behind Longyearbyen is home to well over 100 domes housing antennas for communication with low-earth-orbit polar satellites. Since this is so close to the North Pole, these antennas can communicate with the satellites on every pass as the Earth turns beneath their orbit. A similar array of antenna domes in Antarctica provides this service near the South Pole. As coal mining winds down in the Svalbard Islands, tourism and high-tech communications (think data streams from satellites) are gradually taking its place.
I can imagine how stunning those photos would have been with sunny weather.Sent from my iPhone