As I recently have just returned from the floe edge, I am going through the literally thousands of photos..and I already want to go back again    It’s amazing how the Arctic calls one to come back.  I mean look at this photo ..it’s the one I like to call ‘the twin iceberg photo’.  It is one of hundreds of icebergs we see on expeditions, but the meltwater, and the the sheer size of them was impressive and …well.. beautiful.

The Twin Icebergs

For those that have never been to the arctic, most, probably I would say rarely even think about it. Yes, it’s up there on the news – it is melting, the polar bear is endangered, and the news can go on…but few probably have thought about ’seeing’ the arctic in person.

When I meet people for the first time and they find out that I work for Arctic Kingdom and head up to the Arctic to lead expeditions and animal photography trips the reactions range from: “Wow that’s cool!” to…” oh.. really.. Why do you go?Isn’t it …freezing cold? What’s there to see?”    The latter reaction is typically quickly changed once they see the Arctic Kingdom gallery of images - there obviously is much to see and over the next few months,  I’ll be posting some of my favourite pictures  like this one…

Base Camp Fly By

taken on Arctic Kingdom expeditions over the last 10 years  (wow..has it been that long already!)  and the story that surrounded those pictures

TheArctic is one of those places that you either love it, or you haven’t been there.  I am still asked why I go year after year – I mean, once you’ve been there once haven’t you seen it enough?   I reflected on this recently as to why I love the Arctic – the ice, the snow, the animals and the many Inuit friends.  For me, the primary draw that fuels the passion, that drives me to return and also to show those around me what the Arctic is really all about…is most definitely the animals – especially the whales .

I am going to post an article  below I wrote for a dive magazine back in 2002 after my first expedition to the Admiralty Inlet floe edge out of Arctic Bay.  I wrote this after my first time ever having swam with beluga and narwhal… and after re-reading it just now.. memories come flooding back..and the Arctic calls again.  Without further adoo..  here is that article titled “Dancing with Beluga”

Belugas "Dancing" with the photographer

The Beluga whale and I stare deep into each others eye’s – the Beluga upside down, facing the surface of the Arctic Ocean craning her neck to examine me with a seemingly permanent smile, and me, floating face down, with only a few feet of crystal clear icy water separating us. I float in the water, breathing gently through my snorkel, totally mesmerized by the dark pools of brown that make up the Beluga’s eyes – a stark contrast to her milky white body. I am oblivious to everything except the surreal world below me. Any direction I face, I see pods of white Beluga and charcoal speckled narwhal whales swimming toward me from the black depths below – all with necks angled towards me in unison. All I can hear, aside from my breathing, are their canary-like songs enveloping me from all sides – a virtual orchestra of clicks, whistles and flute-like notes. All I can feel is the icy arctic water pressing tightly against my drysuit. My lips are numb from the cold, but I don’t care, this is a beautiful and magical world unlike any I’ve ever experienced before and I never want this to end.

Beluga pod coming to fill the dance card

As I turn away from my Beluga to look at the other 30 face-up Belugas surrounding her, she turns and follows. With a kick of my right fin, I turn left and she follows my lead. I kick right, and she mirrors my move. I think to myself, “I’m dancing with a Beluga!” and from the depths of my soul, I let out an uninhibited laugh through my snorkel…a laugh of pure joy and exhilaration of having connected one to one with one of nature’s most wonderful animals. I had never laughed so freely and spontaneously before until that moment.

From the surface looking down at the belugas...who are also looking up

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 Arctic Kingdom has been visiting the many floe edges of the north Baffin Island area since 2001.  As an expedition leader since 2002, no matter how many times I go to the floe edge for the spring whale migration, there is always something new or an experience to be had that I could never have expected. This years expedition was no exception! There were some amazing moments and it was a challenge to condense them into only 10..or maybe 11. Here are my top 10 moments.. (not in any particular order)

Walrus playing in ice near the Arctic Kingdom base camp

  1. Walrus appearing right in front of our base camp and hanging out for an hour.  

We had just finished an ice dive and were hanging around the dive tent about 3 meters from the ice floe edge, when a female walrus surfaced and raised her head at least half a meter over the ice edge. At first we thought it was a seal and almost turned away (since we see seals so often it becomes almost too common) but the large white tusks quickly told us it was a walrus. She would gracefully peer at us from in between pieces of pack ice by raising her head way out of the water. Then slip gently back down under water reappearing only a few minutes later in pool of water only a few meters away. She was a young female, with very white tusks.

Narwhal takes a deep breath and dives below the floe edge

 2. Hearing the exhale of the narwhals breath before you can see it

The silence of the Arctic gently envelops you and even the slightest of sounds, from the call of a bird, or in this case, the whooosh sound of a narwhal taking a deep breathe can be hear from far away. There is a moment of exhilaration when you hear that tell tale whoosh and scan the mirror smooth surface for the dark hump that is the back of narwhal. As one watches, the mirror is broken by a surfacing pod of narwhals – one tusk, then two, then another and 5 narwhals rest, breathing deep, whoooosh, only meters away.

Narwhal approaches Arctic Kingdom group in inflatable boat

 3. Sitting in a boat and having a narwhal approach within 2 meters out of curiosity

Having an animal, approach on their own volition, out of their own curiosity and inquisitiveness is the moment we all come here for. In this case, the narwhal would slowly swim towards the grey inflatable boat outfitted with an electric motor. All expedition members could do was to hold their breaths and enjoy the moment!

Kayaking in the early morning with the Narwhal

 4. Kayaking under the midnight sun on mirror smooth water between floating ice with Narwhal all around us

It was 5am and the narwhal were playing out in the open water just beyond our floe edge base camp. We launched the kayaks and quietly floated among the narwhal. With clear blue skies above us, an unrippled surface of dark blue water, and the groans of the narwhal surrounding us, it was an amazing moment.

Polar Bear stretching on pack ice just 30m from base camp at 2am

 5. Watching a polar bear stretch, lounge on the floating pack ice at 2am just outside our base camp

Polar bears are quite common on the floe edge and we came across quite a few – sometimes they would wander out from the pack ice, or along the floe edge looking for seal, or other times we would come across them while snowmobiling across the ice. One special polar bear encounter was just outside our base camp. A polar bear sentry spotted a polar bear approaching our camp from the pack ice that had been pushed against the floe edge a few days earlier. Being only 40 meters away, at 2am, with the sun low in the sky casting long shadows and a soft yellow light, we watched this polar bear lounging on a flat piece of ice. Completely oblivioius to us, he would lie on his stomache, rest his large head on his forelegs, stretch his back legs behind, sit up, sniff around, lie on his back and put his paws in the air. It was almost like he put on a show just for us before a second polar bear came to interrupt his candidness. The two them sniffed each other and continued walking through the pack ice in opposite directions.

Having breakfast under the morning sun

 6. Eating breakfast outside in t-shirts

The weather was extremely warm at the floe edge – with many days waking up almost baking in our double walled Arctic tents. The temperatures would be around 5 degrees, but without wind and having cloudless skies we would be extremely warm. On one such day we decided to enjoy our breakfast outside of the dining tent and under the big blue sky with the backdrop of Baffin Island behind us, Bylot Island infront, all the while watching the narwhal who had just started feeding again. Who knew this was the Arctic!

Diving amongst the pack ice off the floe edge

 7.  Ice diving amongst the pack ice – huge cathedrals of ice, glowing turquoise blue

Although not everyone is a diver who comes on an Arctic Kingdom Expeditions, the ice diving experience augments the ice experience. Ice diving through the pack ice was simply stunning. With almost 300′ (100m) visibility, we could see straight down to the bottom of the floating ice, at times almost 90′ deep. Going deep though isn’t required as we would spend most of the dive at 30′ while making our way between spires of glowing blue and white ice columns, ledges, caves and caverns. The myriad of shapes and rounded ice created a world unlike anything one can imagine. Here is one of my favourite pictures. I’ll be blogging more at a later date  specifically on ice diving in the arctic so stay tuned!

Seaweed covered Inuit harpoon found on the sea floor 30' below the crack

Having glacier water tea.

 9.  Making a tea from glacier water at the base of 300′ (100m) waterfall

On the way back to Pond Inlet at the end of the floe edge season, the land temperatures have risen as well and the glaciers on Bylot island are beginning to melt. The rivers begin to flow and one such river ends at a 300′ (100m) stepped waterfall and empties into the inlet. We took our teapot and filled it from the pool at the base of the waterfall. The subsequent tea we had was probably one of the best I’ve had!

Arctic Kingdom members in the mouth of the icicle laden ice cave

 10. Icicles found in a glacier ice cave

On the way to the floe edge, on the north side of Baffin Island is a glacier that calves in such a way that there is a permanent shallow ice cave at its base. The melt water freezes and has formed many icicles that make the ice cave appear to be toothed.

Jake - Senior Arctic Kingdom guide prepares caribou stew

 11. Eating delicious country food with our Inuit guides – Caribou, Seal, Goose stews and Arctic Char

…and just one more… I couldn’t narrow it down to ten as being on the floe edge with our Inuit guides makes the experience a cultural one as well. Traditional food prepared by Arctic Kingdom’s guides are always a highlight of our culinary experience. Thanks guys!

More information on Arctic Kingdom floe expeditions can be found here:

 http://arctickingdom.com/lancaster-beluga-and-narwhal

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A satellite image generated by Noetix showing the location of the pack ice in Navy Board

Last week, I mentioned Arctic Kingdom’s collaboration with Noetix, a company that provides real-time maps of the Arctic’s ever-shifting floe edge. Expedition manager Thomas Lennartz was on the ice, following Noetix-generated maps and reporting back with conditions in the field. The purpose of this collaboration was to provide Noetix with feedback on the information their satellite images provide, allowing them to provide more nuanced information about conditions on the ice.

Today, I was able to get my hands on some images from that collaboration. What follows are Satellite images of Navy Board in late May provided by Noetix, along with some notes about conditions on and off the ice from Thomas.

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A bear watches from the shore of Hudson Bay as an AK expedition boats by.

Editor’s note: In honor of this summer’s polar bear viewing trips, I’m re-posting Thomas Lennartz’s account of a bear-viewing trip to Manitoba from last November’s newsletter.

We just came back from a successful 4 day adventure in Churchill, Manitoba to see the yearly congregation of polar bears as they wait for Hudson’s Bay to freeze up.

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One of the draws of diving under the ice is the visibility — the colder water is, the clearer it gets, making winter one of the best times to view underwater sites such as the St. Lawrence River’s shipwrecks and lost villages.

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