There Be Orcas in Navy Board Inlet

Back on the ship, we had some time to while away before we got to our next anchorage.

After watching Ultramarine skirt the grounded bergs to continue north in Navy Board Inlet, we grabbed some lunch and then settled down in the cabin to watch the live-stream of Laurie’s previously postponed presentation … the “Polar Bridge.” We listened and watched in amazement as he related the story of the 91-day long joint Soviet-Canadian expedition in which he participated in 1988. The goal of the expedition? To ski across the frozen Arctic Ocean from Siberia to Ellesmere, Canada … via the North Pole. Oh WOW!

(More on the expedition at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet–Canadian_1…)

We were whiling away the time after the presentation, when a call went out over the P/A. Not for the expected zodiac cruise, but for ORCAS! WOW! WOW! WOW!

Orcas have only recently been showing up in these latitudes due to the warming of the Arctic waters. They come up to hunt narwhals and belugas. Their presence, of course, is tipping the balance of nature up here since they are not a native predator of the region. Sam, our resident marine biologist, identified them as North Atlantic Orcas and estimated that there were somewhere around 40 individuals in the transient pod that was arrayed all around us. They were heading in the same direction that we were, so we got to enjoy their presence for quite a while.

WOW again. What an encounter!Читать далее