Bleached Bones

Kvitfiskstranda (White Whale Beach), Bellsund – Spitsbergen, Svalbard (July 2011)

[click here for the words]

Bellsund: Kvitfiskstranda (White Whale Beach)

Thursday, 7 July
Latitude at Wake Up: 77°25’28” N
temperature at wake up: 37.8F (3.2C)

(…)
I am the Beluga Whale.
I am called the canary of the sea.
I’m all white with tiny black eyes.
And I am friendly to everybody!
I am not a very fast swimmer.
I have a round blunt head.
I make the cold Arctic Ocean,
My safe and snuggly waterbed.

By: Kristen Visser
(written by a first grader
for a home research project.)

What a morning we had! Never in my life would I have imagined finding myself on a beach called Kvitfiskstranda (White Whale Beach). But that name is such a tongue-twister, so I’ll give you the alternate name for this landing site as well — Bamsebu.

We woke up to overcast skies. No different from the earlier days of our voyage. This time, though, there was a bit of drizzle that accompanied us the entire time we were in Bellsund (Bell Strait), named in 1610 by the English whaler, Jonas Poole. His inspiration was a bell-shaped mountain in the area. As with Hornsund yesterday, Bellsund was one of the first fjords in Spitsbergen where whalers were active beginning in the 17th century.

One more check mark on our tentative itinerary finds us in Bellsund.
[map on the top right: courtesy of the Spitsbergen-Svalbard website;
map on the bottom right: courtesy of the Norwegian polar institute website ]

Bellsund branches off into two fjords near the entrance. Upon arrival, Captain Stahlberg navigated to starboard (hung a right) into Van Keulenjforden, and anchored in Ingebrigtsenbukta, a bay named for a Norwegian Whaler who spent a number of years whaling in the area in the 1900s.

Since Group 3 was not scheduled to disembark until 10:00a, we had a leisurely few hours to enjoy breakfast and wander around the outside decks before disembarking for a zodiac ride to shore.

Once the ship arrives at its anchorage, the gangway platform is lowered into place
and the gangway stairs are secured for zodiac operations.

See the tiny little white dots the zodiac is pointing to? That’s where we’re headed.

And what are those white dots on the distant shore, you ask?

piles of bleached bones from over 500 beluga whales that were slaughtered here.

We knew about the whale bones before we went ashore. Robin had told us what we would be seeing at this site, which dates back to the 1930s. But nothing in our wildest imagination could have prepared us for what greeted our eyes once we were ashore. I was stunned speechless, and for a moment, my feet refused to obey the signals my mind was giving them to walk over and join the group as Kara talked about belugas and how these bones came to be here. How anyone could have done this to those cute little toothed whales is beyond me!!!!

[click the arrow to start the video of Kara talking about beluga whales]

the smile is an automatic reaction to having a camera pointed at us. we are not smiling on the inside.

Belugas travel in large groups, following their prey (polar cod) into fjords. This made it easy for whalers to capture them with seine nets that they took out in rowboats. Once the belugas swam into the seines, the whalers closed the nets and winched them ashore, where they shot or lanced the whales. And for what? Their blubber and skin. As was the case with the early whaling of the larger species of whales, the meat was left to rot!!!!

Partial reconstruction of a beluga skeleton.

bones, bones, and more bones.

This mechanism made it easier to bring the seine nets ashore after the belugas were caught.

A bit of colorful purple saxifrage to lift our spirits.

Next, we walked over to the other area of interest at this landing site — Bamsebu, a station built in the 1930s for the sole purpose of beluga whale hunting. Established by Ingvald Svendsen, it consisted of a hut and two small shacks. In addition to the buildings, there were whaling boats, one of which was overturned and probably used for food and equipment storage. The hut was later used by trappers who came to the area to hunt Arctic fox.

Next destination is the whaling station/trappers’ hut with a detour to check out one
of the whaling boats that has survived the harsh Arctic conditions.

whaling boat and skeletal remains of years gone by.

The hut is solidly constructed and reinforced with tree trunks; probably driftwood
that traveled here from Siberia via the arctic circumpolar current.

Left: the whalers must have loved their “privy;” check out the heart on the door.
Right: nails with the pointy end facing out was a common bear deterrent.

An overturned boat used for food and equipment storage ... a form of re-use,
taking advantage of what was at hand.

Vessels old and new.

The pointy end of a nasty looking piece of whaling equipment.

Jawbone (not beluga) with teeth intact.

Skeletal remains of belugas and human detritus.

It was still drizzling as we walked back to the zodiacs. It was still overcast too, with fog shrouding the coastline across the bay. There was a chill in the air that was easily felt through our heavy parkas. The ambiance was perfect for this somber landing site. For once, everyone aboard the zodiac was quiet during the ride back to the ship. I don’t know about the others, but my mind was still back in Bamsebu, trying to understand what I had seen. I can appreciate that times were different back then; I don’t think I can ever make sense of it.

Once our group was aboard, the Silver Explorer weighed anchor and went back out into the open sea. The plan is to take advantage of ice-free waters to explore fjords in northern Spitsbergen before turning back to explore areas along the west coast of the island.

After lunch, Mui found a quiet corner and started to work on editing bits and pieces of his video. I bundled up and went outside, intending to walk around Deck 6, but the weather didn’t cooperate. In the end, I joined Mui in the Panorama Lounge where I worked on photographs and blog drafts for a while.

At 2:30p, we went to The Theater to attend Kara Weller’s presentation about polar bears. Something interesting she mentioned about the two species of bears with which Mui and I have had close interaction: polar bears and brown bears are closely related. It wasn’t until the Pleistocene Period (about 250,000 years ago) that the two species separated. And a difference between the two species — other than their coloring — polar bears don’t really hibernate since they have year-round food. The exception is pregnant females. They hibernate with their newborns until the cubs are old enough to leave the birthing den.

Kara also talked briefly about ringed seal behavior. Appropriate to the topic at hand since this species is the favorite food of the masters of the ice.

Here are some salient points that I found interesting: one seal per breathing hole ◊◊ they raise their heads often to look around when resting on ice ◊◊ they don’t defecate on the ice so as not to leave a traceable trail ◊◊ the young have white fur so as to blend in better with the icy environment.

Seeing as how these bears were once related, I couldn’t resist a few “memorable images.”
Polar bears of Churchill (2008) and Brown Bears of Katmai (2010)

Kara’s presentation was followed by tea and tapas in the Panorama Lounge. We’d been staying away from this daily event, but couldn’t resist today. Then it was time for the daily briefing, during which Robin explained the plans for tomorrow. As always, weather can throw a wrench into the works, but for now at least, it’s looking like we won’t be needing a Plan B.

For dinner tonight, we joined Bob and Christina at a four-top. I have to say that there was so much hilarity at our table that we got some interesting looks from some of the other diners! I think they just wanted some of the dark chocolate and marzipan balls that magically appeared at our table after dinner :-). The menu offered several good choices tonight, but Mui and I both ordered the same meal: caprese salad; gnocchi with a tomato and basil sauce; and grilled halibut on a bed of mashed potatoes. Dessert was same but different: gelato for Mui and a most excellent Rocky Road ice cream for moi.

Bon Appétit!

And thus, a day that started on a really somber note ended with a great deal of fun and laughter. May there be a lot more of the latter in our lives as we continue to explore what Mother Earth has to offer us.