15 Aug 2017

SOE: Polar Bears Dotted Around Herald Island

A long, smooth run in the fog took us across the top of Wrangel Island, so by morning we were anchored off Herald Island to the east. Still the thick fog persisted, so we set a waypoint for halfway down the island and followed our GPSs into the soup. As we travelled, the wind and sea picked up so by the time the cliffs of Herald’s southern coastline loomed above us, the rebounding chop set a lively dance. What first appeared to be a snowpatch on the cliff face, morphed into a fully grown polar bear, resting peacefully in a spot it seemed unlikely to have climbed to. But climb it must have. And just a short distance to the south was another bear, and another, and another.  As we rounded the southwest corner of the island, we heard the eerie bellows of walrus, and came upon haulout after haulout tucked into rocky alcoves, many hundreds of walrus both on the rock and in the sea. A foggy run had suddenly turned into something extraordinary, with more be ars up ahead. Through the mist we could see six bears on a tiny gravel beach. When others in the water up ahead caused us to turn around so as not to disturb them, we stopped our count of some 25 bears spotted. We had a bumpy run back to the ship, which dutifully appeared at the expected moment.

After lunch, we had the pleasure of ranger Igor telling us of his first expedition to Herald Island, and his life with his family on Wrangel Island. Ranger Gennady translated and there was much laughter, as well as awe at the challenges Igor and his colleagues faced taking on some of the first polar bear research projects on both Herald and Wrangel Islands. And while we enjoyed the talk, our Captain and officers repositioned the ship to Draggi Bay, on the easternmost point of Wrangel.

As we approached, the ship was surrounded by feeding grey whales, hundreds of walrus, clouds of puffins, guillemots, kittiwakes and gulls, and even a bearded seal. It’s clearly an incredibly productive area for marine mammals and seabirds. At first it looked like the wind would put paid to any landings, but we didn’t mind. On the cliffs just in front of the ship we could see mother bears and cubs moving precariously up and down gulleys. The scree slopes behind were literally dotted with sleeping polar bears. We could see one on the beach in the bay, and on the tundra and small peak behind. It was all too exciting. As soon as the wind eased to within safe operating limits, three Zodiacs were launched and 23 of us faced the blast to go ashore.

Our walk with Ranger Julianna was interrupted by the arrival of a gloriously healthy polar bear on the tundra slopes just above us. We waited for it to climb up to a flat spot where it lay down to rest. We then moved quietly up the hill to a closer vantage point, moving closer again until we all had a wondrously close look (and photographs). More bears decorated the mountainside up toward the peak, including a mother bear nursing three cubs. Below where we were standing, another bear came along just above the beach, encouraging our driver Costya into the Zodiac for an impromptu cruise. Once that bear had moved up the mountainside to the south, we continued our walk to the Rangers Hut. There we had another bear, this one dirt-stained, who came down to investigate us. When it was about 80 metres away it didn’t like what it had found and scurried away in the opposite direction. When people say Herald and Wrangel has the highest density of polar bear dens in the world, believe them.