Bucket List Biggie – Smeerenburgfjorden and Pack Ice

Pack ice

The next day, we headed farther north. In fact, as far north as we could travel. Our goal was to skirt the ice pack looking for Polar Bears. A photo of a Polar Bear on an ice floe would be awesome and that’s one reason I picked a June trip rather than one later in the season. I wanted maximum possibility of seeing a Polar Bear on the ice. Or, at least in the snow. 

Photo from a previous expedition; Photo: G Adventures

Another traveler on our tour had a very specific wish to photograph Polar Bears on the ice; he had even been to Churchill (home of the Tundra Buggies) last year and gotten many photos of Polar Bears in the snow. Churchill is also on my Bucket List. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

Smeerenburgfjorden
But, I am getting a bit ahead of the itinerary. On our way to the pack ice, we visited Smeerenburgfjorden.

Smeerenburgfjorden

Named after Smeerenburg, an old whaling settlement on south Amsterdam Island, the fjord is between the Vasahalvøya and Reuschhalvøya peninsulas (I am sure that means a lot to everyone). It is 12 miles long and less than three miles wide, bounded by some pretty rugged terrain. 

A foreboding landscape

The Smeerenburgbreen glacier can be found at the head of the fjord.

 Smeerenburgbreen

If you haven’t caught on yet, a “fjord” or “fjorden” is a fjord (English uses the Norwegian word and does not have a comparable term for a long deep body of water bounded by mountains). A “breen” is a glacier. Also, a “bukta” is a bay. A “fjellet” is a mountain; “fjell” is mountains.

So, the weather was even gloomier than the day before – gray, overcast and somewhat otherworldly.

 Smeerenburgfjorden

One thing that struck me about that segment of the trip was that any time we were in extremely cold water, the surface took on a smooth, silky look, almost like liquid mercury. This was particularly underscored by the times that the overcast painted the water a deep slate gray.

We didn't see much in Smeerenburgfjorden except a couple of far-away Walruses. We spotted them because, when swimming, they exhale warm air that creates a cloud that looks very similar to Whale blow. Who knew?

Two Walruses taking a frigid swim

Leaving Smeerenburgfjorden

Pack Ice
After touring the silent fjord, we started moving out toward the pack ice. 

As we approached, we cruised past an increasing number of free-floating ice floes mixed in with some brash and small icebergs.

As I mentioned, Svalbard was experiencing exceptionally low (latitude-wise) pack ice; pushed over from North America and sitting along the top of the coast. 

Chart: Norwegian Meteorological Institute

This chart is issued daily by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute to outline the location of pack ice. The Captain uses it to decide where it is safe to take the ship.

Red indicates the dense pack ice; blue is open water. The in-between colors –  orange through green – are the various middle grades of ice density.  

As you can see, the red is sitting right on top of Svalbard; the year before, this chart wouldn't have had much red at all. 

Every season is different and the crew has to adjust.

As I mentioned, The G Expedition is an Ice Class 1B ship, which means we could travel among floes, but could not go through dense ice.

Photo: Rosemarie Keough, G Adventures photographer (I am on deck somewhere)

Obviously, the Captain wouldn’t want to take us in the ice because, even when it is loose floes, the sea can pack a boat in and freeze up around it. That is not a good situation.

We cruised most of the day along the edge of the pack ice. 

Pack ice

The colors are incredible: the ice is various shades of blue and white, including brilliant turquoise. The water ranged from grays to almost black. The ice floes and brash float about, bumping into other chunks of ice, constantly creating new patterns. To see it, click here.

There were some icebergs, but most of what we saw were floes. What is the difference? Icebergs calve from glaciers and, as such, are freshwater. They can stand quite tall and often have even more mass underwater. Floes are sea water that has frozen and then broken apart into big plates.

Left, floe; right, iceberg

Because sea water has a salinity of about 35 parts per million salt, it doesn't begin to freeze until its temperature drops to around 28° F. So, that water is even colder than it looks.

Why does ice float?? Ice is made of oxygen and hydrogen atoms that are joined together by a loose net of hydrogen bonds. This loose net of hydrogen bonds means the atoms of oxygen and hydrogen are kept "further apart" than the bonds in water. This results in the molecules of ice being less dense. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats.

Pack ice

There are different types of sea ice. “Drift ice" is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.), allowing it to freely drift on the surface of the ocean. There is also a phenomenon called “fast” ice, which is "fastened" to a fixed object, such as the shore, an island or a large iceberg.

When drift ice is driven together by wind and currents into a large single mass (more than 70 percent coverage of the sea surface), it is called "pack ice." 

The wind and currents have piled up some floes against some icebergs

To be a floe, the ice must be 66 or more feet across. Smaller ice is called brash. Floes are classified according to size: small are 66-330 feet; medium are 330-1,600 feet; big are 1,600-6,600 feet; vast are 1.2-6.2 miles and giant are more than 6.2 miles across. Obviously, most of what we were seeing was brash!

Floes and brash

The two major ice packs are the Arctic ice pack and the Antarctic ice pack. Polar packs significantly change their size during seasonal changes of the year. Because of vast amounts of water added to or removed from the oceans and atmosphere, the behavior of polar ice packs has a significant impact on global changes in climate.

Black-kegged Kittiwake cruising the pack ice

And, pack ice plays a major role in the health of the Polar Bear population because the Polar Bear’s major food is seals and seals live primarily at sea. Although Polar Bears can – and do – swim, they really need ice floes to hunt seals. When ice is sparse, the Bears must travel greater distances to find food and often starve to death.

Photo: G Adventures

This year’s low ice was good for Svalbard’s Polar Bears. But, on the other side of the world, the pack ice was pushed away from Alaska which was not good for the Polar Bears there.

Cruising the Ice
So, our hunt was on! We were marveling at the scene, but also actively looking for Polar Bears. I was worried that it would be hard to get good Polar Bear pictures in the gloom, especially if they were far away, which, according to our guides, they usually are. I guess I should have been more worried about finding Polar Bears!

We looked and looked and looked. No bears. No seals. No whales. Some Puffins.

Atlantic Puffins

Some Arctic Terns.

Arctic Tern touchdown

Some Dovekies.

Dovekies tend to fly in groups, sometimes quite large

Some Northern Fulmars.

Northern Fulmar negotiating the pack ice

Some Black-legged Kittiwakes.

Black-legged Kittiwake on the wing

Some Thick-billed Murres.

A close fly-by

Lots of Thick-billed Murres.

A Thick-Billed Murre flock

In fact, one really cool scene of a bunch of Thick-billed Murres parked on an ice floe.

Thick-billed Murres on an ice floe

Illustration: Coca Cola Company

It is easy to see why people get confused and think Penguins and Polar Bears co-exist. 

They don’t.

Polar Bears live ONLY in the arctic. And, with a very small exception in the northern Galapagos Islands, Penguins live ONLY in the Southern Hemisphere, with many populations in the Antarctic. 

But, when standing, Thick-billed Murres do look like Penguins. So, maybe that’s a source of confusion. Advertising types have long demonstrated a very poor grasp of actual nature.

By the way, Coca Cola is most guilty of perpetuating this inaccuracy with their ads featuring Polar Bears friendly with Penguins. Beyond the ridiculousness of having the two creatures together, I wouldn’t be surprised if a Polar Bear’s first instinct would be to eat rather than get chummy with a Penguin.

Coca Cola now uses Polar Bears with Puffins in their ads rather than Polar Bears with Penguins; a scenario that could really happen – if Polar Bears and Puffins drank soft drinks, or had access to vending machines, or had pocket change, or had pockets.

They do look like Penguins!

As we were cruising the pack ice, we were skimming along through the Arctic Ocean, which is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions. Some oceanographers don’t even think it should qualify as an ocean – as opposed to a sea or even an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. But, regardless, it's a magical place.

Almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America, the Arctic Ocean is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year (and almost completely covered in winter). Its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans, due to low evaporation, heavy freshwater inflow from glaciers, rivers and streams and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities. Still, the Arctic Ocean’s temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes.

We went as far north as I have ever been on land (I have flown over the North Pole). We reached 79° 53’ in latitude. For perspective, Colorado Springs is 39°, Fairbanks is 65°, the Arctic Circle is 66.5°, Kaktovik (where we saw Polar Bears before) is 70° and the North Pole is 90°. To commemorate our journey, we got certificates – digital rather than paper copies. I think I’ll just keep it in my files.

Our cool day cruising was marred just a bit by our failure to find the main purpose for this tour: a Polar Bear. 

We were all convinced that the pack ice was our best shot.

So, off we headed that evening, going south to Fjortende Julibukta (July the 14^th Bay), where we were scheduled to see a hanging garden and nesting bird colonies. 

I think we had an easier time getting going than this guy

We were in for a surprise.

Trip date: June 15-July 4, 2019