Barrow Strait
Barrow Strait
By Blog.Admin
Barrow Strait - September 19, 2008
3:00pm, Eastern Standard Time
Have you ever been chased off a beach by a Polar Bear?
Until this sunny morning on Beechey Island, most of us had not. Our first excursion, cut short due to a shiny white blob spotted on the horizon, saw our usually smiley guards sternly order us back to the zodiac. We maintained an air of curiosity and excitement (the bear was so far off!) until our lunchtime briefing, where we learned how fast a bear could run.
It could have reached us in under 5 minutes, and it took us over 10 to hustle everyone into the zodiacs. Apparently, the last folks to embark saw the bear in the distance begin to run toward us, more courageous with a thinned-out crowd.
Our Inuit representative, Mika, explained that a skinny bear is a dangerous bear. She translated for her father, an Elder, who added that this skinny bear was in its “in-between years,” or teenaged, which is the most volatile type. So, the threat was apparently real. I’m sure every time we retell this story, the bear will have gotten closer and our lives more endangered.
7:00pm, Eastern Standard Time
Kerry is kind and fun to chat with. Early this morning she showed me ‘the bridge’ up on the 6th deck, the equivalent of a cockpit where wall to wall windows allow our Russian captain and crew to keep watch for ice. We are allowed to roam freely among them and use their binoculars. I’m surprised they are not annoyed by this daily traffic.
Kerry points out some brown dots on the distant shore. It’s too far to tell even with binoculars, but she was told they were muskox. The expedition leader announces a polar bear sighting on shore over the loud speaker. It is hardly visible to the naked eye. Through the binoculars, Kerry spots a tiny white figure passing near the herd – she finds it bizarre that the herd and the bear ignore each other.
I’m chatting with Kerry again later on and she introduces me to the best outdoor lookout point and hauls over an extremely powerful telescope which we are apparently free to use. With some difficulty, we focus it on the muskox, grazing in the same spot as yesterday. They turn out to be 4 rusty barrels – we laugh and decide that people will see what they want to see. – Janet Alilovic
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