yann in the arctic

Thursday 14 August 2008

back from the cruise

I got back from my Arctic cruise two days ago ... and had an awesome time. I was all part of my Arctic Biology course, and so there was a lot of work involved. I got started on my project which involves collecting lots of goose poo which we will later be looking at under the microscope... (yes, I did feel like throwing up at times but it had to be done).

I have so much to write about and so many photos ...

For a week we stayed on board the MS Stockholm, which is a Swedish boat that UNIS use for their field excursions. It is normally intended for tourism, and so I guess we were really spoiled: we had our own chef, most rooms had their own bathrooms with shower etc. Seriously it was a luxury boat and UNIS must have spent a fortune on it.


Our aim was to reach Edgeoya which is the easternmost island of the Svalbard archipelago - but didn't make it that far due to stormy weather conditions. Most people felt seasick and the boat did rock quite at bit at night. We did managed to reach the South Cape (southermost part of Spitsbergen) as well as the East Coast.


Every morning the crew would ferry us to the shore on these cool Zodiac boats. Most of us would be wearing Regatta suits (avoids us being splashed/floats) whereas others would be wearing the orange drysuits to help keep the boat steady on land.




At one point we landed somewhere in search of some red listed plant species. So there I was dum dee dum taking photos of the cool mountains ... got back on the boat later that evening ... and realised I had just been on Oscar II Land. Now for those of you who don't know: when I was here last time, we always joked about Oscar II Land as being the land "where the sun always shines". It was a far away land that we could always see in the distance, and it became some kind of eutopia to us ... with its jagged mountains.


On the last two days of the excursion we stated at Kapp Linné, an old radio station. We managed to focus much more on the invertebrate projects, by setting up sticky traps etc. We also met some other students from Norway who were investigating Arctic Charr migration - they gave us a few fish which we disected but also kept to eat back at home. Just as we were leaving on the last day, a pod of Beluga whales came to visit - one came within a few metres of us. Some had massive scars left by polar bears.

To finish off today's post, below you will find a video compilation of random boat rides around Svalbard.