Tag Archives: Pteropod

Two in the blue meets two blue whales

Today was a wildlife extravaganza! We began with the plan to head down to the Monacobreen Glacier to examine the crumbling glacial face there, and also hoping to spot some of the polar bears known to haunt the area. However we never made it that far because wildlife kept getting in the way! First off, we took a winding route amongst the Andøyane Islands where we quickly spotted the shaggy shape of a bear romping around the moss covered slope attended by an angry swarm of dive-bombing terns. We quickly threw out the anchor and watched cautiously from a distance as the bear ambled around the island in search of eggs before stretching out on the beach for a nap (despite the continued attack of the terns).

The bear was a female wearing a collar from the Norwegian Polar Institute who are tracking and studying the population on Svalbard. Such studies are critical as we try to determine how the bears are adapting to the rapidly changing environment of the Arctic …. While the lack of sea ice this year makes cruising in the Arctic a breeze for us, ice-dependant species like the polar bear are facing new challenges as their icy habitat diminishes.

While we watched the bear on the beach the fjord began to come to life around us. Small planktonic pteropods began to bounce around below the boat and a swarm of juvenile cod began to mill in the shallow water – soon kittiwakes were circling and we found ourselves in the midst of a feeding frenzy as birds dropped from the air on all sides only to be faced by a gang of jealous rivals each attempting to snatch the tasty morsel plucked from the depth. Offshore more birds darkened the horizon and soon we were watching minke whales lunging to the surface with water spilling out of their baleen as they gorged on the plankton below.

 

But the star of the day was yet to show – transfixed by the minke whales swimming barely ten meters off the bow, we almost failed to notice the towering columns of water being thrown to the heavens on the other side of the fjord. But when we did drag our eyes to the horizon we realised that we were in the presence of not just one, but two blue whales. Soon we left the minkes (one of the smallest Rorqual whales) behind for the largest animal in the world. The marbled blue surface of the blue whale back were shortly before us … the beasts were immense with the very small portion of back exposed with each blow making our yacht look like a small sailing dingy in comparison. Spending an hour with two blue whales is a privilege and a memory that will stay with us forever.

Today was outstanding – for the first time since arriving in Svalbard we were surrounded by wildlife. Too often landings up here entail less live wildlife and more focus on the history of whaling, sealing and trapping that ultimately led to the decline of so much of the polar life. Today was fantastic, but one can’t help contemplating the days when mariners had to “plow through” the throngs of whales in these waters …let’s hope with good management the whales one day return to their historic feeding grounds.

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Pteropods

Today while pottering around the twisting maze of channels in the Argentine islands in a small rubber boat it wasn’t the spectacular ice formations or the seals and penguins that caught my interest – it was the teeming swarms of tiny planktonic mollusks. They are called Pteropods which literally means “winged foot” which is a pretty good description. They have a small coiled shell mage of aragonite (similar to calcium carbonate found in your average mollusc) but rather than the typical slug like foot of your average mollusk these guys have two wings which they use just like birds – to slowly flap their way through the water and keep up near the light where all the food is. While not many know much about Pteropods they are an essential and important part of the food web in most oceans. Unfortunately they are also under significant threat from human activities. The hidden catch 22 with climate change and the carbon in the atmosphere is that most of that Carbon Dioxide ends up in the ocean where is forms carbonic acid. An important exit for the gasses that are causing dramatic climate change but unfortunately the result is that the seas are slowly becoming more acidic. The sad news for Pteropods is that in the increasingly acidic waters they are no longer able to build their aragonite shell, especially in cold southern waters. The result? Many believe we will lose some of these fundamental organisms in only decades leaving a critical gap in the ocean food chain. Watching these small winged mollusks slowly flap through the still waters of Antarctica was a special sight and one that may be hard to come by in the future.

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