Nordaustlandet: Torellneset

Saturday, 9 July
Latitude at Wake Up: 79°29’59” N
temperature at wake up: 32.5F (.3C)

So far on this voyage, we’ve visited Bjørnøya (Bear Island), located about halfway between mainland Norway and Svalbard, and Spitsbergen, the largest island in the archipelago. Overnight, Silver Explorer dropped down into Hinlopenstretet (Hinlopen Strait), which separates Spitsbergen from Svalbard’s second largest island, Nordaustlandet. Discovered in 1617 by English walrus hunters, the island’s name translates as Northeast Land. It is mostly covered by the world’s third largest ice cap: Austfonna (Eastern Ice Cap).

Day 7 of the voyage takes us to our third island in the Svalbard archipelago.
[map on the Left: courtesy of the Norwegian polar institute website]

On an overcast, foggy, and slightly drizzly morning, we made the acquaintance of another one of the mega fauna of the Arctic — Odobenus Rosmarus, or as more commonly known, walrus. The meeting took place at Torellneset, on the west side of Nordaustlandet. With the wind-chill below 32F (0C), the ride to the beach was not pleasant, but what we found at the haul-out made it well worth the discomfort.

After shedding our zodiac life vests, we followed Christian to the far side of the beach where the walrus were huddled together in a huge mass of blubber that jiggled and shook each time one of the animals shifted a bit. By my count there were 25 of them. Later, we were told they were all males of varying ages. Every once in a while, one or two of them would raise his head to look us in the eye, showing us long, dangerous-looking tusks, but they seemed quite comfortable with our presence and made no move towards us.

The origin of the word walrus has been attributed to Dutch (whale horse or shore giant) as well as to old Norse (horse-whale). The Latin name for the species translates from Greek as “tooth walker” (or as some say, tooth-walking seahorse), and was based on seeing walrus pulling themselves out of the water using their tusks.

Adult males can weigh up to 4,500 lbs (2,041 kg). Amongst the pinnipeds (fin-footed mammals), the walrus is only exceeded in size by two species of elephant seals. Residing in shallow oceanic shelf habitat, these creatures spend a major portion of their life on the sea ice in pursuit of benthic bivalve mollusks, their preferred food.

Walrus have played a prominent role in the cultures of indigenous Arctic people, who have hunted them for meat, fat, skin, tusks, and bone. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, they were the object of heavy commercial exploitation for blubber and ivory. During that time, walrus numbers declined rapidly, but populations have since rebounded.

The two long tusks are elongated canines. They are present in both sexes, and can grow to over 3 feet (1 m) and can weigh up to 12 lbs (5.5 kilos). Males use these tusks to fight and establish dominance (the “mine is bigger than yours” syndrome). Also, the tusks are used to form and maintain holes in the ice, as well as help walrus climb out of the water and onto the ice. Contrary to popular belief, walrus don’t use their tusks to spear prey, but they do use them to drag through the sediment while they dig with their snout.

The skin is wrinkled and thick (up to 4 inches [~10 cm] around the neck and the shoulders). Beneath the sparsely furred skin is a layer of blubber (about 6 inches [~15 cm] thick). Both these thick layers help walrus retain body heat, as does the physical contact they maintain when they are hauled out on a beach.

Although the herd was in a tight huddle, one male that looked to be older than the others remained at the edge to give me the lone walrus portrait I was looking for.

After a while, we left this group behind to check out a smaller huddle on the beach. OMG! The smell … the smell here was something else!!! One whiff sent me staggering back until I found a spot downwind from them.

There were three walrus hauled out and several in the water, play-fighting and just swimming about. Walrus don’t move around a whole lot when they’re huddled into a mass of blubber, so it was nice to see them doing something other than scratching themselves or flipper-slapping their huddle-neighbors.

A few of them swam up to where Mui and I were standing shin-deep in the cold water to check us out. They seemed very curious, submerging and popping back up again in a game of peek-a-boo. One in particular was willing to play the game for quite sometime, giving everyone ashore a thrill.

Eventually, it was time for us to leave the haul-out and go to the zodiac landing for the return trip to the ship. Two of the walrus accompanied us as we walked back along the shore seemingly as loath to see us go as we were to leave them behind. Either that, or they just wanted to make sure the red-jacketed creatures were indeed leaving!

So, yes; this landing was all about walrus, and I don’t have much to share with you other than pictures of them. But for variety, here are a couple of our ever-vigilant bear guards keeping an eye out for any sign of polar bears. Glad they didn’t see any as we would have had to evacuate the beach in a hurry and miss out on what Robin said would likely be our only walrus-focused landing.

You use whatever's at hand to have the high ground in bear country.

Shrouded in fog, Silver Explorer awaits the return of our group.

Oh, and here are some sea ducks that flew overhead … too bad they weren’t flying against the portion of the sky that was turning blue.

Common Eiders

All in all, I’d say that this first-ever visit to Torellneset by Silver Explorer was a great success. And the rest of the day was not too shabby either (just kidding; it was grrrrrrrrrrreat!). I’ll leave you with a hint of what’s to come in the next post …