During lunch Capt. Sergei moved MS Expedition from the entrance of Isfjorden and northwest between the coast of Spitsbergen and a long skinny island, Prins Karls Forland. We are anchored off the central eastern shore of Prins Karls Forland.
Prins Karls Forland was named by English whalers who used to hunt for whales in Svalbard. It was named for son of the king of England, Prince Charles.
The entire island and the surrounding ocean is part of the Forlandet National Park. This park protects the animals that visit and live on this island.
We have come here not to see just any animal...we have come to see one of the largest pinnipeds in the world -- walrus! We are near a point called, Poolepynten, which is a popular walrus haul out!
This is a popular location for male walrus to haul out because it is near a large underwater bed of clams which is the walrus' favorite food! Walrus are big animals and BIG eaters! A single walrus can eat as many as 6,000 clams a day! A walrus will eat about 6% of its body weight every day! That would be like a 100 lb person eating 26 Big Macs everyday!
Before we arrive at the beach a large male walrus pops his head out of the water to check us out! He inflates the special air bladders in his neck so he can float high up in the water as he watches us with a curious look! We are curious, but cautious, too! We have heard reports of a walrus puncturing a Zodiac® with its long tusks! Fortunately this walrus watches us go by then dives back underwater and disappears!
We land our Zodiacs® a ways down the beach from the walrus haul out so we will not disturb them and they won't leave the beach. From our landing site we slowly and quietly approach the walrus hauled out on the beach. The walrus ignore us! We stop about 100 feet from the walrus trying not to make any noise. The walrus continue to ignore us as they snooze on the beach laying next to each other.
Up close we can really appreciate how big these animals are. The males grow larger than the females -- up to 12 feet long and 3,300 lbs.! The big males seem to get tired moving around on land. We see a male come out of the water. It walks up the beach a short distance then stops to catch it breath! Another male on the beach decides to get in the water but instead of walking into the water it rolls into the water!
Even though other pinnipeds are the favorite food of polar bears walrus are not. Walrus can be bigger and heavier than a polar bear, they have thick, tough skin and long pointy tusks. A polar will not attack a walrus unless it is starving because a polar can be injured or killed by the walrus' long tusks!
It is possible that polar bears could appear unexpectedly, so we are carrying our rifles, just in case. Along the beach here we can see a long way so we could see polar bears a long way away but polar bears could suddenly pop out of the water without warning. Polar bears are considered marine mammals because they can swim for miles so even on the beach we have to be perpared for polar bears!
We do not want to kill a polar bear or even shoot one. If we see a polar bear coming towards us from far away we will leave on our Zodiacs® and go back to the ship to get away. If a polar bear is heading towards us from a short distance away we will try to scare it away. We carry flare pistols with us which we would fire up in the air towards the polar bear. The loud noise and bright flash should scare away the polar bear. Only if a polar bear is charging us would we have to shoot it and that has never happened.
We do want to see polar bears but we want to see them safely from our ship or from our Zodiacs. As our expedition heads north over the following days we will have better chances of seeing a polar bear, especially when we get into the sea ice on the Arctic Ocean!
Day 3 PM
