Woodfjorden: The World’s Biggest Creature

Friday, 8 July
Latitude at Wake Up: 79°51’46” N
Temperature at Wake Up: 39.9F (4.4C)

I
I am the blue whale.
The biggest animal who lives in the sea.
I can dive for half an hour.
Then I come up to the surface to breathe.
I eat four million krill a day.
My whistle is louder than a jet.
I’m the biggest animal that has ever lived.
Would you like me for a pet?

BY: Michael Day
(Written by a first grader
for a home research project)

(…)
I think we should order a full breakfast from room service every morning to guarantee an early morning wildlife sighting. This was our second attempt to eat in our suite on this cruise, and it was the second time our breakfast was interrupted by mother nature sending a visitor our way. Not complaining mind you; just stating the facts.

When the announcement came around 6:00a that there was a blue whale near the ship, we grabbed our parkas and cameras, and flew out of the cabin like lightning. My heart was pounding as though it was going to burst out of my chest. Not because of the exertion of running up two decks to get outside, but because I was so excited to see the greatest, biggest animal that has ever lived on earth! My hands were shaking so much that I was having difficulty holding the long lens steady as I scanned the horizon for my first glimpse of a blue whale. Then I saw IT, and a blissful calm settled over me.

At 90-100 feet (27-30 m) long, and weighing 180 tons, the blue whale is the largest
known animal to have ever existed.

(If you look very closely in the lower right quadrant of the lower left photo in the collage, you’ll see a gull that will help put the size of the blue whale in perspective.)

Once abundant in nearly all of the oceans on Earth, this great baleen whale was hunted to near extinction during the 20th century. Internationally protected since 1966, the blue whale is still considered an endangered species. By today’s estimates, there are 8,000 to 14,000 blue whales worldwide. That’s far less than the 29,000+ that were slaughtered in just one season in 1931 — and it is just a tiny fraction of the pre-exploitation population, which was estimated at 350,000.

A rare and special sighting of a blue whale.

We spent about 30 minutes with the whale as it slowly swam about, periodically sending big, tall blows high into the air. Then we broke off to go look for a fin whale, the second largest whale species. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived on site, the whale was long gone. I can understand why we broke off from the blue whale, and I certainly don’t disagree with the decision. Nonetheless, I do have a bone to pick with the expedition staff. Later in the day, Robin mentioned in passing that they had been watching the whale sleeping on the surface since 5:30a. In fact, another expedition ship in the vicinity apparently had its guests on deck to enjoy this rare sighting as soon as they came upon the whale. Why we weren’t alerted to the blue whale earlier is beyond me. To give us time to sleep? Sorry, not acceptable IMHO. We’re here on an expedition voyage to see and experience things that are new to us. We can sleep when we get back home. (Apologies for the short rant; but I had to get it out of my system.)

So back to the story of our day — or at least the first part of the day. As I’ve done on other occasions, I will break today’s story into multiple posts.

Having left Bellsund around noon yesterday, Silver Explorer made it’s way overnight to Woodfjorden (Wood Fjord) in the far north of Spitsbergen.

Skipping sites of interest along the west coast, we head north.
[map on the right courtesy of the Norwegian polar institute website]

While the passengers breakfasted, the scout boats went out to explore the area around the Andoyane Islands to see if they could find bears. In the meantime, as the ship slowly continued further into the fjord, Mui and I went up to Deck 6 to enjoy the sun breaking through the clouds to shine on the magical scenery … which I’m going to present in this post in B&W to underscore the raw beauty of the area.

And just think ... all this was in just the first few hours of our day. Much more to come ...