Arctic Kingdom Team Members relax near Barrow Straight.

Smithsonian Magazine has a great cover story this month on “Alaska’s Great Wide Open.” It’s well worth a read, particularly for writer Pico Iyer’s meditiations of life out on the tundra:

A quiet place, I was coming to see, teaches you attention; stillness makes you keen-eared as a bear, as alert to sounds in the brush as I had been, a few days before, in Venice, to key changes in Vivaldi. That first Denali morning one of the cheerful young naturalists at the privately owned camp took a group of us out into the tundra. “Six million acres with almost no trails,” she exulted. She showed us how to “read” the skull of a caribou—its lost antler suggested it died before the spring—and handed me her binoculars, turned the wrong way round, so that I could see, as through a microscope, the difference between rushes and grass. She pointed out the sandhill cranes whose presence heralded the coming autumn, and she even identified the berries in bear scat, which she was ready to eat, she threatened, should our attention begin to flag.

via Alaska’s Great Wide Open | Travel | Smithsonian Magazine.

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Nothing like breakfast out on the ice

Even the most intrepid traveler is unlikely to go it alone in the Arctic. But even though group travel — with experienced guides — is a necessity out on the ice, National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel Blog makes an excellent point: When you travel with a group, the trip becomes about more than just your destination.

I’ve found that bonding with your tour-mates can be nearly as fascinating as exploring the destination itself. My first visit to Europe was on a bus, stopping in one country a day, and with all the driving, there was plenty of downtime to get to know my fellow passengers. We had an international crowd, from Brazil, India, England, China, and Australia, and as a teenager, I found their stories helped shape my wanderlust, and inspired me to get out in the world.

Arctic Kingdom has been thrilled to play host to explorers from all over the world, from Japan to France and even our own native Canada. Our experienced guides come from Canada, England, and from indigenous communities throughout the Arctic. Sure, you’ll come for the Arctic. But the people are pretty awesome, too.

To Tour or Not to Tour? – Intelligent Travel Blog.
Arctic Kingdom Adventure Travel: Available Trips

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I’m always on the lookout for great photos and video of Arctic critters. So I was thrilled when Expedition Manager Thomas Lennartz sent me a link to the BBC’s Wildlife Finder. This site’s got it all, from photos and video to audio clips taken from the field. Check out the page on Polar creatures and their habitats!

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A beluga comes face-to-face with Arctic Kingdom divers

This Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle had a fun travel feature on beluga whales. What I like most about the article is how fascinated writer John Finn is by how expressive beluga faces are. Sometimes, it’s not exactly flattering:

Mostly they kept a short distance away, but a few curious ones came close and poked their heads out of the water for a better look, submerging before I could judge their facial expressions. But I can report that one whale, with a big, fat wrinkle across its brow, looked disturbingly like comedian Don Rickles.

But the piece really does capture the magic of seeing the whales face to face:

A mother and calf swam parallel to us. Another pair surfaced right next to our bow and nuzzled our kayak.

Then a bulbous white head poked out of the water, close enough to touch with my paddle, had I wanted to. We briefly made eye contact. Then, before I could get a good read on its facial expression, it disappeared and popped up near our bow. It made eye contact with my wife, Jeri, in the kayak’s front seat.

This time I got a better look. Its face showed, as best I could tell, curiosity tinged with apprehension. If it could read our expressions in turn, they would have been filled with wonder.

via In Churchill, Manitoba, snorkel with belugas.

Try to read a beluga’s expressions, or search for the Don Rickles look-alike whale on one of Arctic Kingdom’s many Arctic adventures!

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A polar bear strides along the ice near Lancaster Sound.

In recent months, the governments of both the US and Canada have sought to protect vital areas of the Arctic.

In Canada, federal and regional governing bodies are working to create a Marine Park in the eastern Northwest Passage, in an area already much-beloved by Arctic Kingdom expedition leaders and participants:

The federal and Nunavut governments as well as the regional land claim organization are close to signing a memorandum of understanding intended to make Lancaster Sound Canada’s fourth such protected region.

“It’s getting close to signature,” said Terry Audla, director of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. “Talks are going on and we’ll see how far it gets.”

Lancaster Sound, just off the northern tip of Baffin Island, is an area of rich ecological diversity and stunning beauty that has been on Parks Canada’s wish list for protection since 1987.

“Lancaster Sound is a one-of-a-kind jewel,” said Scott Highleyman of the Pew Environment Group, an international environmental organization.

Its dramatic coastline is dominated by 300-metre cliffs and interspersed with bays, inlets and deep fiords. Most of the world’s narwhal, as well as large numbers of beluga and bowhead whales, swim below the icebergs that bob in its waters.

In the US, the Interior Department proposed on Thursday that 200,000 square miles along Alaska’s northern coast be preserved, due to the area’s critical importance to polar bear survival.

Proposing critical habitat for this iconic species is one step in the right direction to help this species stave off extinction, recognizing that the greatest threat to the polar bear is the melting of sea ice caused by climate change,” said Thomas L. Strickland, the assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks.

In both cases, singling out these crucial areas for protection provides a much-needed respite for threatened arctic species, as well as drawing attention to the Arctic region.

The Canadian Press: Ottawa, Inuit near agreement on marine park for eastern Northwest Passage.

U.S. Urges Protecting Alaskan Land to Save Polar Bears – NYTimes.com.

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Found via Narwhals: The Unicorn of the Sea | Aquaviews – Online SCUBA Magazine.

Edited to Add: As Tom points out in the comments section, much of this footage was taken by filmmaker Doug Allen on an Arctic Kingdom expedition to Lancaster Sound.

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It's even prettier when you've got a warm tent and a hot meal waiting for you.

This episode is more than a year old, but I had fun reading about Survivorman’s stay on Pond Inlet back in 2008. It really gives you a sense of the difficulties inherent in surviving the Arctic wilderness alone:

Although the rain stopped the wind has increased and I am stuck – pinned down on an exposed point using some old crate plywood for a shelter. The polar bears are on the land now and I have to keep a sharp eye out for them. So far I have only seen arctic wolf tracks on this location, no bear tracks. For protection I have a shot gun, a bear banger pistol and bear spray. The arctic char are here along the coast and I can see them in the water. Yet even though I’m lucky enough to have fishing tackle, I am not getting any hits at all. Of course it is so windy that the lure just blows back in my face when I try to cast out into the ocean anyway.

My only supplies are a CB radio, fishing tackle and a handful of whale blubber.

I have to make up my mind on whether or not to stay where I am or relocate further inland – closer to bears but out of the wind.

We take great care to ensure that we’ve got the gear, supplies, and experts neccesary to run our expeditions at the highest level of comfort possible. As you can see, the ‘low frills’ version can get pretty hairy!

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In a proposal filed this week, the Interior Department asked other countries to support a ban on the commercial trade of polar bears and to strictly regulate trophy hunting. The request, if approved, would give the bear the most stringent protection afforded under an international convention to protect endangered species.

It would also upgrade protections for the bear internationally for the first time since 1975, when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, required export permits for the polar bear.

Since then, mounting scientific evidence has shown that Arctic sea ice is melting and suggests that global warming may cause the disappearance of summer sea ice in 30 years.

In May 2008, the U.S. classified the polar bear as a threatened species, the first with its survival at risk due to global warming. The determination made all but subsistence hunting illegal.

The U.S. pitch argues that the loss of sea ice could make the toll of trade and hunting on the bear worse.

“The underlying melting of the Arctic ice is an issue no single country can address,” said Tom Strickland, the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. “This is part of a comprehensive approach to try to provide additional protection for this important, iconic species.”

Read More: The Associated Press: US seeks tougher protections for polar bear.

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And now for some good news from the New York Times’ Dot Earth blog:

The National Snow and Ice Data Center released its summary of summer sea-ice conditions in the Arctic on Tuesday, noting a substantial expansion of the extent of “second-year ice” — floes thick enough to have persisted through two summers of melting. The result could be a reprieve, at least for a while, from the recent stretch of remarkable summer meltdowns.

According to the center, second-year ice this summer made up 32 percent of the total ice cover on the Arctic Ocean, compared with 21 percent in 2007 and 9 percent in 2008. The percentage of ice that was many years old, forming thick pancaked expanses, was at its lowest since satellite observations began 30 years ago. But that could change next year as the second-year ice adds mass through the long winter freeze.

via Over the Summer, a Spread of Thicker Arctic Ice – Dot Earth Blog – NYTimes.com.

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Wondering why, exactly, Arctic sea ice matters? NASA’s Tom Wagner has the answers.

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