Coningham Bay, Polar Bears, and Bellot Strait

A bearded seal.

Sighting polar bears!

Female with cubs on a beluga carcass.

Another mother and cubs.

Male swimming across the bay.

Sadly a dead bear.

Our zodiac driver Dylan who was as excited as us about all the bears.

Back to the ship.

Entering Bellot Strait.

Lovely evening sky.

Organizing shots....

A toast to Zenith Point and an excellent day!

Tuesday, Sept 5^th. Coningham Bay, on Prince of Wales Island and Bellot Strait, between Boothia Peninsula and Somerset Island

After breakfast, this morning we picked up our pre-packaged lunches for the afternoon zodiac trip. The reason is two-fold, one to try to cut down anyone handling anything, and two because we’re going to be out on the zodiacs for two hours over lunch. Then we had a talk about polar bears and how iconic, unique and well adapted they are to the Arctic, cold conditions, and living on the ice. Then it was time to get our kit together for the zodiac excursion; two hours cruising around Coningham Bay in an open boat in cold weather. The staff here were very excited about it. The bay is quite small, sheltered, shallow and has a narrow opening. Because of that the water is a few degrees warmer than the open water of the strait. Beluga and narwhal are attracted to it because as one guide said, ‘it’s a hot tub and spa for them’. They come for the warmer water, and they like to rub off dead skin on the shallow bottom. Polar bears have learned that beluga come here, and they show up because it’s a chance for them to get a high calorie blubber rich feast before the ice forms and they head out on it looking for seals. The beluga must really value the ‘spa’ to put themselves in such harm’s way… We went out in three waves of 4 zodiacs each, and before we entered the bay, we saw a bearded seal swimming and checking us out. Then as soon as we got through the narrow opening, we found a mother polar bear and two cubs feeding on a beluga carcass. Their faces were covered in blood. What an incredible viewing. As we circled the bay we saw more, lone males and females with cubs. I had hoped to see a bear somewhere in the Arctic but today in this tiny (2 km by 2.5 km) bay, we saw by our guide’s count, 16 polar bears!! Not all were very close, some were on slopes surrounding the bay, and even photographing the ones on the shore was difficult because Adventure Canada have a rule of staying at least 100 metres away for safety so as not to unnecessarily change the behaviours of the bears, and because we were in zodiacs, the platform for taking photographs was always moving up and down, which is magnified by zoom lenses. Nevertheless, we got shots of three sets of females with cubs and a number of single bears, including one that was swimming from one shore to the other. We saw a mother and two cubs go running full speed away from an approaching male. Absolutely amazing, it was like National Geographic. Even our zodiac guide, Dylan was over the moon with the number of bears and said he had never seen so many in one place. Unfortunately, we also saw a dead bear, which we were told was unusual as they usually die on the ice and disappear when it melts. There were some guesses as it why it died, but ultimately no one really knew. Surprisingly, although there were bears and gulls around, nothing was predating on it… yet, so it must have been recent. We also saw the backs of a couple of beluga and narwhals. When we got back to the ship, I asked who ate their lunches and nobody had other than the power bar. We ate the lunch when we got back. Then we had a presentation on beluga whales. They are one of three whales that have adapted to live full time in the Arctic. The other two are narwhals and bowhead whales. All three have lost their dorsal fin on their back as they live under the ice during the winter where it would be a hindrance. Then we had another presentation, this one called ‘The Icy Arctic’ where the presenter explained the three main types of ice found up here. 1) Glacier Ice, which consists of fresh water that has fallen over the years as snow and has compressed over time and from its combined weight into glaciers; 2) Sea Ice, which is formed on the sea when the temperature drops below -2 degrees Celsius, and 3) Permafrost which is a permanently frozen layer of ice that lies beneath the active layer of the earth and thaws out in the spring and summer and where plants grow, and the unfrozen layer called talik which lies beneath. It can be as close to the surface as a few centimetres to several metres, and it can be metres thick. 50% of Canada has permafrost beneath it! Each of the three types of ice has several different types. Words like ice caps, ice sheets, icebergs, pack ice, ice floes, are probably familiar to most people, but other words like bergbits, frazil ice, grease ice, shiva, nilas and pancake ice, might not be… I’ll spare you the details. What’s important to know is that ice loss is caused three ways: melting, evaporation, and calving (where chunks fall off into the ocean). We are losing ice all over the world which is a huge problem because the ice is the air conditioner of the planet. The more we lose, the more heat gets absorbed which causes more loss of ice. The white ice reflects the sun’s heat back and the darker surfaces of water and land absorb the heat causing the temperature to go up, and the temperatures in the Arctic are going up faster than anywhere else on earth. After dinner, we all went up on deck to watch as our ship made its way through the narrow Bellot Strait with its rugged, rocky, shores. This strait is named for one of the men searching in vain for the lost Franklin expedition. The captain has to time his passage through this strait at slack tide because the high tide running through the narrow strait towards the ship runs at about 10 knots and our ship only does about that speed. Therefore, we wouldn’t make any progress. So, slack tide is the time when the tide reverses and turns to actually help push us through the strait. As we passed through it we scanned the shores looking for wildlife and hoping to see muskox, but alas no sightings. On the port (left) side of the ship was the south shore of Sommerset Island, and on the starboard (right) side of the ship was Zenith Point, the northern most point of North America. Our guide explained that theoretically you could walk from Zenith Point all the way through North, Central and South America to Cape Horn at the southern end (if you had the time and plenty of shoes). However, from Zenith Point north, you had to take a boat to get to Sommerset Island. We all went out on the deck and were given a shot of rum or gin to drink a toast at Zenith Point. Then we all gathered for a group photo on the deck. The last item for the night was a live band in the Nautilus Lounge playing some oldies.