Well, another day spent at the base camp due to bear activity. The bears (mamma and her two cubs) wandered back to our camp sometime early Saturday morning. They were spotted swimming in the cove having a pretty good time. The cubs were not very good swimmers, but mamma was superb!. I got out my binocs and watched her swim to the shore and emerge out of the water and shake her massive body like a huge shaggy dog. She then walked up the embankment, waited for her cubs to get their act together after coming out of the water themselves and the three of them walked right along the trail to the lake. After a short while the three of them plunked down and slept for hours. We could do nothing but wait and see if they would move along. The bears enjoyed the warm sun and continued to...
Friday morning we woke to news that there was a mother polar bear with two young cubs near base camp. This of course was very exciting and we all hurried to the big windows near the kitchen to have a look. We were forbidding to go outside and there were many calls placed to UNIS headquarters for counsel on our actions that day. Polar bears are protected on Svalbard (the last hunt was in 1972) and there are strict laws against pressuring/harassing the bears. They were about 200-300 meters away just poking around. Photo ops were not good and not a single person had a serious zoom lens on their camera, so the best we have is this poor photo of the bear taken through a window in camp. I was not upset about this too much as I was enjoying the moment of watching these awesome...
Tuesday,July, 24, Steve Roof and I hiked up the valley (in this case "up" is south) to service the "Galcier Cam" and check on the lichen stations. The hike was moderatly up hill over fine rock river plaine, large coarse rocks and then finally over moraines left by the glacier. The pace was brisk and the weather was overcast but comfortable at about 4 degrees celcius (39 F). I asked lots of questions to steve as we hiked and he patiently explained details like mass balance (the relationship between glacier formation and glacier degredation) and the multitude of environmental/climatic factors that influnce it. Steve also taught me about the formation of the moraines we were climbing over and I learned that the first moraine we reached was most likely an "ice core...
Thursday was a very full day of attaching temperature data loggers to rope with clinch ties, cleaning the funnels and baffles of the sediment traps, measuring the lines from buoy to rock anchor and placing the correct trap at the correct site in Linnevatnet. I spent much of the day concentrating on the data loggers and measuring and recording trap lengths. I also helped to deploy a few traps. Once again, hanging over the side of the boat, having just muscled the large rock anchor over the side, and attaching the traps to the rope in the icy water. The traps cannot be attached on land because they would get caught on the boom that helps us deploy the rope. The data loggers are small and rugged enough to slip over the pulley. I enjoyed the work and it gets much easier after your...
Monday’s weather called for rain. This is, after all, Svalbard’s rainy season. We woke to overcast, but no rain. It came eventually but was usually light and manageable. This has been a dry weather pattern around here the past couple of weeks and it interested the team to see how a fresh pulse of water would influence the inlet stream and sediment rates.
Steve Roof and I hiked up to his remote camera on a rock ridge about 100 meters above the lake on the east side. This camera, dubbed "Plume Cam”, takes pictures of the water flow into the lake from the inlet, which is fed from the glacier. It takes a picture every 3 hours every day, all year (except those times of the year when it is always dark. Their NSF grant doesn’t fund for a flash THAT big!). The idea is to capture...
Wednesday, the entire team set out for Kongressvatnet, the smaller, but very deep lake above Linnevatnet. The hike is about 45 minutes from the south shore of Linnevatnet and the first mile or so is up a very steep, rocky hill before it settles out into a flat walk the rest of the way (about another 1 1/2 miles). This lake is interesting because it is so deep, has very clear water and has higher chemical proprties due to an inlet with high hydrogen sulfate gas. The lake has such low turbididty because of low primary productivity (low algae) and it is not fed by the glacier, which would deposit a lot of sediment into the lake. Rather, this lake is fed by ground water perculating throgh the limestone (another reason for the unique chemical properties).
A small zodiac boat outfitted...
Sunday, July 22.
Having located many of the buoys for the sediment traps Saturday afternoon, we set out to recover the traps on Sunday. This is difficulty work due to the icy water conditions. The boat is out fitted with a boom with pulleys that the rope attached to the traps must be guided too as you hang off the side of the boat (torso only). The next step is to pull several meters of the rope until the top of the sediment trap is above the surface. The boom is only about a foot above the water so much of the trap is still in the water when it reaches the boom. Pulling the rope is no easy task because it is anchored by a massive rock to keep it in precise location throughout the year. When the trap is at the boom, you must cut the ties that attach the trap to the rope. This...
Saturday, July, 21. We just got out internet connection at the base camp at Isfjord Radio Station. It took some doing, but thanks to the perserverence and tech skills of Steve Roof, it came to fruition. It will take me a day or two too catch up, and I appologize for the delay. Life at 78 degrees north latitiude is a bit different than just swinging by your local internet cafe or call to verizoon for internet access!
We made the trip to Kapp Linne Saturday morning. The ride from Longyearbyen to Isfjord radio station was beautiful! The zodiac boats were loaded down with gear and researchers and we made good time (about 90 minutes) as the water was not to choppy. As you can see from the pictures we all were in our survival suites because an unfortante fall into this water...
Today was spent training for extreme conditions in Svalbard. These conditions could include being attacked by a polar bear or falling out of a speeding boat in the middle of the Barents Sea. Hopefully not on the same day. The rifle training was fun. Our team was very good and I especially enjoy shooting high powered rifles (30-06) like any proud rural Mainer. The most fun part of the rifle training was when we were put through a exercise regime to get us tired and stressed then immediately picking up our rifles and shooting at the polar bear target. The retired Norweigan Army man in charge of the training worked us preety hard (I felt as though the 2000+ miles of bike riding I had logged prior to the trip vainished, as my heart rate red lined immediately!) and then as we...
Mike and Matt
After a 3 1/2 hour trip from Maine to Boston and four flights each ranging from 4 ½ hours to 1 ½ hours, I arrived in Longyearbyen, Svalbard at 2:30 am Thursday, July19. Exhausted and disoriented from the 6 hour time difference I finally slept after being awake for about 30 hours straight (I cannot sleep on planes as my 6’3’’ 225+ lb body does not fit well in small narrow airline seats). We are now at 78° north latitude, which means no darkness. Not even close! Finally being able to crash on a bed, I slept well anyway. A herd of stampeding reindeer could have roared past my window and I would not have known it! Although we got only 5-6 hours sleep due to pressing organizational activities to do in the morning, I feel good, no doubt due to my excitement about this...
All my bags are packed. I'm ready to go. I am 48 hours away from leaving to Svalbard. I have taken some time to enjoy the beauty of my local bioregion, drank in some sunsets, spent some time on our beautiful and plentiful lakes and otherwise enjoyed this home that is Maine. I am blessed to leave one beautiful land to visit another and I hope I learn much about Arctic climate change, but also learn to appreciate this land that I live and work on. So many people have expressed their excitment to me about my trip and I hope to bring back as much infromation, pictures and experiences as I can. As a student of Environmental Science, I also get many questions about the changing world that so many people see happening before their eyes. It is my hope that this expedition can help me...
field
My formal education and training is in wildlife biology, although lately my interest has been learning about global warming, climate science and its impacts on ecological processes. My first reaction upon learning that my trip to Svalbard would become a reality was "I hope I get to see a polar bear!”
I have since learned that Svalbard has one of the densest populations of Polar Bears in the world. Well, that is very good, but it gives me pause. I DO want to see a polar bear, BUT I sure don’t want to see one (or more than one!) TOO close. Having lived in western Montana and hiked extensively in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, I know the powerful feeling of being in the wilderness among large carnivores. You don’t sleep well! Here in Maine, my biggest worry is black...
