Expedition Svalbard

By The Perfect World Foundation. Photo: Lars Jacobsson

Nine adventurous and curious travellers from Sweden, the UK and the USA are ready to go. Ahead of them lies a seven-day expedition by boat through the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean, into the 80th parallel north. And encounters with polar bears in majestic, blue icescapes await.

At the airport in Oslo, the expedition members are welcomed by The Perfect World Foundation’s founders, Ragnhild and Lars Jacobsson, Swedish explorer Ola Skinnarmo and the team’s filmmaker from Canada.

Already now, several of the expedition’s foreign members feel like they’re a long way north. But Oslo is merely north. Their destination is the extreme, far north. First there is a stopover in the Arctic town of Tromsö, and then a 90-minute flight over the Arctic Ocean to reach the town of Longyearbyen, on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. From here, the expedition will venture even further by boat out into the Arctic Ocean, to the extreme north.

SAFETY FIRST. On the first evening in Longyearbyen, the expedition’s participants all meet up for a delicious meal at Huset restaurant, to get to know each other better before setting sail. After dinner and a visit at the local museum, the team gather on the expedition vessel for an initial safety briefing.

“If you end up in the water without a survival suit, you won’t last many minutes,” the expedition’s captain says gravely. “Where we’re going there are no roads, no airstrips, no hospitals and no people.” One of the team members says nervously, “I think it’s going to be safer to stay on board.”

THROUGH WATER AND ICE FAR, FAR NORTH. The next day, the adventure starts. The expedition team climb aboard the legendary polar vessel M/S Stockholm, fitted for only 12 passengers. The ship, constructed with a riveted steel hull in the middle of the last century, will take its passengers far north into the melting pack ice from the North Pole – the expedition’s destination!

The journey heads directly north, and the first destination is to reach the 80th parallel, to circumnavigate the northernmost island in the archipelago, Spitsbergen (literally, ‘pointed mountains’), which was named after the majestic razor-sharp mountain peaks that rise straight out of the icy ocean. After passing the 80th parallel north, the ship enters waters protected by Nordaustlandet, one of the largest islands in the north-eastern part of the Svalbard archipelago.

COLD, DAMP AND ICY WATERS. The expedition’s team are very well prepared – the items on the packing list are vital for survival in these extreme areas. The cold combined with the dampness and the icy ocean makes this region extremely inhospitable, yet no one in the group has any complaints. M/S Stockholm’s crew of 12 take care of the expedition’s travellers really well, between and during the team’s day trips away from the ship.

The day trips are most often made using rubber dinghies to reach the shores, and close to the wild animals. First ashore is always a trained crew member equipped with a rifle, to ensure safety in case of a surprise encounter with the North’s apex predator, the polar bear. Polar bears are one of the world’s most dangerous animals, and they live so isolated and far away from mankind that they have no fear of us. The impact of climate change on the Arctic ecosystem has made it difficult for polar bears to find food, and many are starving. People walking about in their territory – are food!

One night, the ship is slipping through the pack ice just 20 metres away from an ice floe where a male polar bear is feeding on a seal. A female polar bear with her two cubs first circles around the scene from suitable distance, before finally challenging the male polar bear in the hope of getting a mouthful of the rapidly shrinking meal.

UNFORGETTABLE NATUR AL EXPERIENCES. The unspoiled beauty of the Arctic is breathtaking. Around midsummer the sun stands high in the sky 24 hours a day, and the animal life is amazingly vibrant. The expedition team get to experience hundreds of thousands of nesting seabirds, walruses, seals and blue whales. And on three occasions, close encounters with polar bears.

One night, the ship is slipping through the pack ice just 20 metres away from an ice floe where a male polar bear is feeding on a seal. A female polar bear with her two cubs first circles around the scene from suitable distance, before finally challenging the male polar bear in the hope of getting a mouthful of the rapidly shrinking meal. The whole expedition team stayed up that night watching the unforgettable drama unfold. Even the team’s great adventurer, Ola Skinnarmo, admits that it was a very rare experience, that he’d never had before.

DID YOU KNOW THAT WALRUSES

... are the largest seal species in the world, and live in large flocks along the Arctic coast or around the North Pole.

... have two big tusks that can be up to one metre long, and weigh almost as much as a normal sized car – a whole tonne.

... find their food in the ocean at a depth of 10-50 metres / 35-165 feet, but are usually never under water for more than ten minutes at a time.

... don’t use their tusks to get food, but scratch the ocean floor with their beards to get at their food.

... have almost no natural predators and can live to be up to 40 years old. Polar bears might sometimes try to scare walrus herds, but never dare to go after an adult walrus.

Puffins are found in the northern Arctic Ocean up to 80 degrees north, and the expedition team were able to watch these long-living birds (can live to become up to 30 years old), with their muffled, grumbling call, warming themselves in the sun on the rocks.

THE ARCTIC DIP. Each day the whole group gather on M/S Stockholm to have lunch and dinner together, and to share the day’s adventures and the nature photos they captured, over a welcoming meal. On day 5, at almost exactly the 80th parallel north, the ship crew spots a place with an incredibly beautiful iceberg. A perfect background for this year’s photo of the traditional ‘Arctic dip’.

Remembering from the 2017 expedition that you actually do survive the freezing waters, The Perfect World’s Ragnhild and Lars are first to jump in this year, with a tandem jump from the gunwale, closely followed by the rest of the expedition team. All the returning ice bathers are rewarded with a warming dram of ‘Gammel Dansk’ for their daredevil dip… which for most of them lasts just a few short seconds.

The Arctic Ocean is freezing cold, and polar bears swim in it. You need to be brave and a little mad to throw yourself from the gunwale – though the traditional Arctic dip only lasts a few seconds for most daredevils. The safety line and the promise of a warming dram of ‘Gammel Dansk’ made all of the expedition’s members find the courage to jump in... with horrified delight.

PLASTIC AND GHOST NETS. But these days in the Arctic aren’t only about fantastic experiences, breath-taking scenery and ice-cold dips. The expedition team also witness lots of plastic litter in the places they disembarks during their day trips with the rubber dinghy. Perhaps even worse than the plastic are the many ghost nets (fishing nets lost in the ocean) that may have killed catastrophic amounts of marine life on their journey through the Gulf Stream. This current can carry ghost nets and plastic waste from both southern Europe and the southern parts of the United States, all the way up to the Arctic.

EXPEDITION SVALBARD 2018. The Perfect World Foundation’s main aim for their expedition to Svalbard in 2018 is partly to follow up on the previous year’s expedition focusing on the extreme temperature increases in the area, and also, to document the spread of plastic pollution in the ocean, which affects even these extremely remote areas, and how it impacts wildlife.

DID YOU KNOW THAT POLAR BEARS

... are the only bear species described as a marine mammal – a mammal that spends most of its life in the ocean. ... never hibernate. Pregnant polar bears spend a lot of time in their ‘den’, and enter an inactive stage during pregnancy. … are the only bears that have fur under their paws and between their toes. This is because polar bears lose most heat through their paws. Their toes are also partially webbed. … need to eat two kilos of fat a day to survive, have about 10 cm / 4’’ of fat around their body and manage to keep their body temperature at 37°C / 98.6°F in air temperatures as low as -40°C / °F thanks to their layer of blubber. ... are the largest living land predators. A polar bear can grow up to 3 metres / 10 feet long and weigh up to 700 kilos / 1,545 pounds.

MEETING THE POLAR RESEARCHERS. The Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), a research institute where scientists from all over the world gather, is located in Ny-Ålesund, a small village north of Longyearbyen on Svalbard. From here, research is done to understand and predict changes in the earth’s climate, water temperatures, the Gulf Stream and plastic pollution, and to see how these changes affect everything from the ocean’s smallest inhabitants, the krill, to whales, polar bears and, of course, humans. Meeting these scientists is one of the most important purposes of the expedition; to film, interview and learn from these specialists who have ringside seats to watch the big changes, which are more evident here than anywhere else on Earth.

POLAR ICE IS MELTING ON ALL SIDES. In the Arctic, scientists have on several separate occasions measured air temperatures that exceed 20°C / 68°F warmer than normal. These temperature increases, together with the new phenomenon of rain in the area, increase the ice melt from above. And new record high water temperatures of up to 13°C / 55°F mean that the ice is melting from below as well.

The polar ice is also melting because of increased temperatures in the Gulf Stream. This current flows from the Gulf of Mexico up to Svalbard, where it flows under the ice cap of the North Pole and turns to follow the east coast of North America and back again to where it started. The cold ice of the North Pole is like a motor for the Gulf Stream, and is essential in keeping the water moving.

THE STREAM’S DEADLY DOWNSIDE. The Gulf Stream also carries plastic waste and ghost nets up to the North Pole. At the expedition’s visit to the research centre in Longyearbyen, the team get to watch a film, documenting a polar bear dragging around 100 kilos (220 lbs) of ghost net. The bear was starving and exhausted. By freeing the polar bear from the net, the researchers were able to save it, but so many more polar bears suffer the same fate unaided.

The researchers also tell us that it is estimated that about 70 percent of all seabirds in the area have eaten plastic debris, and most likely have bits of plastic filling their stomachs, leaving diminishing room for nourishing food. This can lead to starvation, however, the full consequences this has for the seabirds aren’t yet fully understood. Sharp plastic objects can pierce the stomach and cause fatal injuries. But we also know that plastic gives off harmful substances and can act as a magnet for various chemicals. Disturbances in seabird fertility are therefore predicted to be one of the consequences of birds eating plastic.

THE POLAR BEAR’S FIGHT AGAINST THE CLIMATE. Polar bears are one of the world’s largest land predators, and with no natural enemies are at the top of the food chain in the Arctic’s marine ecosystem. This is why they are the first to feel the effects of global warming. Polar bears hunt for food out on the sea ice. Higher temperatures due to climate change mean the ice covering the Arctic Ocean melts earlier and earlier each year, leaving the polar bears with shorter hunting periods. As the ice pack disappears, so does the polar bears’ ability to hunt for seals – their main source of food – and to eat enough to build up a reserve for the winter. In open water, polar bears don’t stand a chance of catching fast seals. To hunt successfully, polar bears need to creep along the ice and surprise their prey. Now, polar bears have begun to change their diet. Instead of hunting seals, they increasingly eat bird eggs to survive. But in addition to eggs not being an adequate diet for polar bears, this creates an imbalance in the Arctic ecosystem. In the long term, the birds will adapt, spread out and choose more inaccessible breeding sites. But the polar bears can’t easily do the same. Polar researchers have already observed a decrease in the Arctic’s polar bear population, and observations of starving polar bears have become commonplace.

A SINKING PARADISE. We all know that the escalating increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is the main culprit behind global warming and its consequence – climate change. CO2 levels are the highest they’ve been in at least 800,000 years. Worryingly, the biggest changes have occurred in the last 50 years, with CO2 levels in the atmosphere increasing from 280 ppm to 410 ppm (parts per million). In order to reverse climate change, the global goal must be to reduce CO2 levels in the atmosphere to 350 ppm, before 2100.

The team’s many unforgettable experiences during the expedition to one of the world’s most pristine places are clouded by the realization that this paradise is undergoing dramatic change. Changes that will quickly affect the rest of the world, with more weather changes and extreme weather (droughts, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes etc.), higher sea levels and increased acidification of the oceans, all of which cause devastating disturbances to ecosystems and threaten biodiversity. When the expedition team leaves Ny-Ålesund behind, the researchers’ last worrying words stick in their minds – CO2 levels have now reached an unfathomable 413 ppm.

SVALBARD. Is a group of Norwegian islands located in the Arctic Ocean, halfway between Norway and the North Pole. In addition to a few thousand polar bears, the islands are also inhabited by about 3,000 people. Almost two thirds of Svalbard consists of protected areas. The name Svalbard means ‘cold coasts’ and is found in Icelandic texts from the 12th century.