Tag Archives: WWF

Aboard the Explorer of Sweden

By Neil Hamilton
Finally, after all the preparations, we are away. We had a very quick final meal of take away pizza and left Kirkenes at 2020 on the 31st July, heading north out of the fjord into the Barents Sea. Everything worked perfectly. I did the first 4 hour watch with Niklas, then went to bed after handing over to the captain, Anders just before we entered Russian waters. The weather was foggy, the sea warm (13 degrees!) and calm. And completely empty. I’m not why this surprised me, but we didn’t see a single vessel on our radar or GPS navigation systems until we had almost reached Murmansk.
After 12 hours we had almost reached our next destination, Murmansk. Entering into the port of Murmansk is reasonably complicated as it is at the south end of a 40km long and narrow fjord with shipping lanes, many different types of anchorage, towns, shipyards, and a major naval base. The fog cleared, the sun came out, the weather was warm enough for short sleeves and we were able to see the wonderful landscape around us, very similar to northern Norway or even (according to some of the crew) parts of coastal Sweden.

View of Murmansk

We picked up a pilot (the first time he had ever been in a sailing yacht!) who guided us past the huge numbers of shipyards, dry docks, and anchored ships of every possible description. The scale of everything is fantastic. The entire Russian ice breaker fleet is berthed here so we saw many vessels we are familiar with from our work in the Arctic, including the huge ‘Arctica’ class nuclear powered vessels, and an old favourite of Per Magnus’, the Kaptain Dranitsyn. Enormous oil tankers guided by tugs, container ships, and coal transporters passed us going out of the port as we became more and more fascinated by the approaching city.

One of the enormous vessels in Murmansk

Explorer of Sweden’s first contact with the Russian coast took place at Dock 12 of the Murmansk commercial harbour, in the centre of the incredibly busy coal loading terminal. Customs and Immigration officals were waiting for us and performed a thorough and professional check of our documents and the ship. It seems that only one or two other prviate yachts have ever entered the port before so the process is almost as much of a novelty for the officials as it is for us. Fortunately our agent had ensured that all our papers were prepared in advance but Ola’s little photocopier was working overtime for a while, issuing all the necessary copies.A few questions, and fFinally everything was stamped. We are now legally in Russia.

The Explorer of Sweden in the dock at Murmansk

Then another pilot, and a short trip to another wharf close to the centre of town. We seem to have minor celebrity status here as we have been given a berth right next to the most famous Russian ice breaker of all, the Lenin, which was launched almost exactly 50 years ago. Waiting for us were old friends including Mikhail, the captain of the Barneo floating ice base which I visited earlier this year. Welcomes and formalities over, we discovered a very convenient (and much needed!) shower and sauna nearby.
We have several days in Murmansk to obtain the final approvals from a variety of authorities to continue with the expedition. This is the last place we will visit for the next two months with more than a few hundred people, and with shops, so our time here will be precious.

Northeast Passage: Waiting in the sun

1 August, 2009GeneralNortheast Passage expedition, WWFuser

This summer, WWF is helping support two expeditions that will take on some of the world’s most difficult waters, to see first-hand the effects of Arctic climate change. One expedition is sailing across the top of Russia, a journey of 6000 nautical miles through the Northeast Passage, while another is attempting a west to east transit of the Northwest Passage, also by sailing boat, a journey of about 7,000 nautical miles.
Tom Arnbom of Sweden was on the ‘Explorer of Sweden’ though the Northeast Passage, as was WWF Arctic Programme Director Neil Hamilton for much of the trip, replaced near the end by WWF polar bear coordinator Geoff York. On the ‘Silent Sound’ Cameron Dueck of the Open Passage Expedition is filing regular stories from the Northwest passage. Come back for photos and stories throughout the summer, and follow the progress of the boats as they follow in the wake of some of history’s most intrepid explorers.
By Neil Hamilton
Last night was special: the farewell dinner, with the wives and families of some of the crew. Foie gras for entree (a gift from a friend), Norwegian pork fillet in cream and pink pepper sauce, served with rice coloured with 3 kinds of red peppers, finished up with (wait for it) ready made caramel pudding out of a box. Champagne, Valpolicella, and some chateau cardboard kept the conversation flowing until well after midnight. The occasion was as intellectual as it was spiritual, the final sign to ourselves that we are actually going to do this expedition.
Having spent the past grey and rainy day in Kirkenes trying to get all our approvals and the necessary forms for our entry into the Port of Murmansk, today has been quite a contrast. Ola Skinnarmo showed why he is leading this expedition, ordering, prioritising, and making sure that everything was done to his satisfaction. I ended up cleaning the toilet, bailing out the last of the bilge water, wrapping the ice axes, changing an oil filter, washing up, vacuuming the floor, and a few other things.
The sheer number of activities that have to be completed before leaving on the expedition later today boggles the mind:
– stock up on all the last minutes supplies and equipment we need
– check all the sailing gear, accessories, safety and rescue equipment
– test the communications gear
– wash and dry all the clothes (the rails, halyards and every available piece of deck was covered!)
– change the oil and filters in the outboards, and the main boat engine
– wash the boat from top to bottom
– clean the inside of the boat (which looked like 8 guys had lived in it for two months, something close to the truth)
– tidy up everything into its proper place so that you can find it at 4am in a storm
– and of course, fill in more forms, talk to our agent in Murmnansk, and read the pilot book for this stretch of coast.
And then spend the last few hours alone. For the next couple of months we will be unable to get more than a few metres from each other so just wandering around Kirkenes by ourselves is a luxury we all need. Somebody even tried to get a haircut.
Being alone was also a way of lessening the tension which had been growing by the minute all day. We are all aching just to get out to sea, to begin this voyage of discovery. Even the short 150 nautical mile trip to Murmansk is an adventure: we literally don’t know how easy or hard it is going to be to negotiate the authorities, despite being well prepared. And we are all waiting to see exactly what the ice conditions will be like. Watching the daily images on the internet doesn’t tell you enough to be able to predict whether we will have an easy sail through an ice free Arctic Ocean (heaven forbid) or an intense experience, having to watch every minute of every day to avoid hitting floating fragments.
So at 2000 tonight local time (1800 UTC) we will cast off and head out of the port of Kirkenes into the Barents Sea. The wind is gentle (hopefully we can sail instead of motoring) and the weather is fine. There is no one here to see us go, quite a contrast to Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Oslo earlier on the trip. After that, everything is uncertain, depending on the weather, the Russian authorities, and us. It’s 4 hours to the Russian ‘border’, then several more sailing southeast before we reach the pilot point. And then more hours before we finish our first day, in the Port of Murmansk.

Northwest Passage update: Herschel Island

1 August, 2009GeneralNorthwest Passage expedition, WWFuser

This summer, WWF is helping support two expeditions that will take on some of the world’s most difficult waters, to see first-hand the effects of Arctic climate change. One expedition is sailing across the top of Russia, a journey of 6000 nautical miles through the Northeast Passage, while another is attempting a west to east transit of the Northwest Passage, also by sailing boat, a journey of about 7,000 nautical miles.
Tom Arnbom of Sweden was on the ‘Explorer of Sweden’ though the Northeast Passage, as was WWF Arctic Programme Director Neil Hamilton for much of the trip, replaced near the end by WWF polar bear coordinator Geoff York. On the ‘Silent Sound’ Cameron Dueck of the Open Passage Expedition is filing regular stories from the Northwest passage. Come back for photos and stories throughout the summer, and follow the progress of the boats as they follow in the wake of some of history’s most intrepid explorers.
By Cameron Dueck
When Silent Sound entered the Work Boat Channel of Herschel Island, we were expecting a day or so at anchor at a quiet historical site, perhaps with a hunting party or two in the area. How little did we know. Herschel Island was a booming community of some 25 souls by the time we left two days later, most of them scientists who paced around the island looking very serious in their Gore-Tex clothing with clipboards clenched in their hands. They’re all there because Herschel is an easy place to come and see how climate change is affecting the arctic ecosystem.
Besides the scientists, we met the Mackenzie family, who have been living on the island for generations and now use it as their summer hunting camp.
Herschel Island was a key harbour for whaling ships 100 years ago. It then became an important RCMP outpost before being abandoned, and then becoming a national park. Meeting the Mackenzie family was great luck on our part, as they have generations of oral history on the place.
Marjorie Mackenzie was born in the old family log cabin, where the extended family was now staying with a brood of children. The area around the cabin was busy with wheelbarrow traffic as the kids hauled each other around camp and a jumble of mattresses laid out to air, fishing nets, knives, guns, coffee mugs, toys and scraps of firewood. But in order to get to all that you had to cross a swampy bit where the seawater was creeping up over the land.
“It’s just getting a lot warmer. There’s more water right by the house here, this bit of water right in front used to never be here,” Marjorie said.
Herschel Island is slowly sinking because its permafrost is melting. Chris Burn, of the Department of Geology at Carlton University and one of Canada’s pre-eminent permafrost experts, happened to be visiting the island, as he has done for decades.
“We know there has been a 2C warming of the permafrost in the last century, its harder to know how much of that has occurred in the last 50 years because of the data we have to work with,” he said. “This is happening because of higher air temperatures at the surface.”
At 15m below the surface the permafrost is now –8C, while it slowly gets colder downward from there.
“We know that it is definitely warming to 42m, but surface temperatures suggest that measurable temperature change is penetrating to 80m,” he said.
“Think of the amount of energy needed to input to warm that amount of mass, all that soil, to that extent.”
Burns said the biggest impact of melting permafrost in the Canadian Arctic will be the higher cost of maintaining an building municipal infrastructure for the many small, scattered communities. With taxpayers facing the bill for this, the problem will likely dwarf into a political hot potato before it gets solved.
“Can we reconcile ourselves with the rising cost of northern life, which takes place in a transition area for climate change,” he asked.

Northeast Passage: First report from Neil Hamilton

31 July, 2009GeneralNortheast Passage expedition, WWFuser

By Neil Hamilton

The adventure has begun!

Inauspiciously……..

My flight from Oslo was cancelled, but eventually I arrived in Kirkenes, one of the biggest fishing ports in the Barents Sea. Perhaps 40 Russian trawlers were tied up at the wharf, together with the Nordlys, the famous Hurtigruten ship that travels along the coast of Norway. The weather is warm (about 15 ^oC), grey and overcast with rain showers.

It is wonderful to meet up with Ola, Anders and Hannibal again after a couple of months since our shakedown cruise to St Petersburg. Explorer of Sweden is berthed alongside a fishing boat in a quiet part of the harbour, the crew having a well earned rest after sailing from Sweden via Olso and then circumnavigating Svalbard. Ola and Hannibal’s families have come to spent a few days with them before we leave on the expedition. Minor repairs and adjustments have been made, and lots and lots of shopping: 3 months worth of food, water, and other supplies are now on board. The boat is pretty crowded!

In preparation for the expedition I have been watching the ice charts every day for the North East Passage for the past couple of months and we are now pretty sure that this year is going to be almost as bad, or perhaps even worse, than 2007, the year all the records were broken. The Kara Sea is already clear of ice, as is much of the Laptev Sea. The two ‘pinch points’, the Kara Gate south of Novaya Zemlya and Cape Chelyuskin north of the Taimyr peninsula, are almost free – and it is still July. This makes me feel torn between the tragedy of the loss of the ice and all that this implies, and the anticipation of being able to ‘do the impossible’: sail through the legendary North East Passage.

So now it’s just a matter of settling in to my (very narrow) bunk, unpack my gear, and work out how to get all the communications and film gear working. We hope to be able to send regular updates (blogs, pictures, and video), plus keeping the Twitter channel buzzing with news throughout the voyage.

Northwest Passage update: Barrow science

24 July, 2009GeneralNorthwest Passage expedition, WWFuser

This summer, WWF is helping support two expeditions that will take on some of the world’s most difficult waters, to see first-hand the effects of Arctic climate change. One expedition is sailing across the top of Russia, a journey of 6000 nautical miles through the Northeast Passage, while another is attempting a west to east transit of the Northwest Passage, also by sailing boat, a journey of about 7,000 nautical miles.
Tom Arnbom of Sweden was on the ‘Explorer of Sweden’ though the Northeast Passage, as was WWF Arctic Programme Director Neil Hamilton for much of the trip, replaced near the end by WWF polar bear coordinator Geoff York. On the ‘Silent Sound’ Cameron Dueck of the Open Passage Expedition is filing regular stories from the Northwest passage. Come back for photos and stories throughout the summer, and follow the progress of the boats as they follow in the wake of some of history’s most intrepid explorers.
By Cameron Dueck
Silent Sound is at anchor in Barrow, Alaska, America’s most northerly point
and one of the front lines of the battle between oil companies and citizens
concerned about the side effects of oil and gas exploration.
Barrow is the administrative centre of the North Slope Borough, which of
course includes the Prudhoe oil and gas facility and other North Slope
fields. Exploration has become the bread and butter of this area, but with
it have come a whole host of worries that Barrow scientists are trying to
address.
Heightening the concerns for residents is the fact that a large percentage
of the Inuit living here remain subsistence hunters, and they rely on the
animals and land around them for food.
“The mayor is opposed to some of this further development, but it is in
federal waters, and it is coming. What we’re trying to do is get more
science done,” said Karla Kolash, special assistant to the mayor of the
North Slope Borough. “We don’t think and oil spill can be cleaned up in
these weather and ice conditions up here.”
Bowhead whale and caribou populations are two of the more important species
for local hunters, and in both cases there is concern that exploration
activity affects their migratory habits.
Oil and gas exploration is ramping up in Canada, and Alaskans say that
communities across the border could learn something from their experiences.
“Stay involved, do what you can to be in the decisions making process,”
Kolash said. Our fear is that one day they’ll just run right over us.”
Scientists here are increasingly combining traditional science and knowledge
gathered from hunters and elders and combining this with scientific facts to
get a fuller picture of the wildlife.
At the Ilisagvik College, sitting on a windswept spit of land that protects
a shallow lagoon just north of town, much of the work focuses on wildlife
research and preservation and finding out how modern human activity affects
the Arctic environment. Even as they study the negative effects of oil
exploration, funds that come in from selling these exploration rights are an
important source of funding for their research.
Cyd Hanns is a research assistant who spends much of her time looking at
contaminant levels, a concern in the Arctic because ocean currents deposit
pollutants in the North.
“We’ve begun testing in particular the parts of the animals that people here
eat,” Hanns said.

Tom Arnbom, Northeast Passage day 10: Richness and diversity

24 July, 2009GeneralNortheast Passage expedition, svalbard, WWFuser

Reindeer grazing at Alkehornet on Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Photo by Tom Arnbom

Several of the richest fishing waters in the world can be found in the Arctic. In America, Alaskan pollock is one of the largest American fisheries species and in Europe the Barents Sea is the source for an enormous amount of fish. It is very important to manage these populations well and not overfish them, like many other fisheries around the world which have totally collapsed.
However, another threat is the climate change which will increase the sea water temperature in the Arctic – which will then cause fish populations to move further north to colder water. In Alaska, if the pollock population moves north into Russian territory, America might lose a very valuable fishery. A similar problem could occur if the cod in the Barents Sea moves into Russian waters. There is a lot of money involved and political conflicts may arise from this.
In Alaska, the fishermen have decided not to fish in the areas which are now opening up in the Arctic as the summer sea ice melts away. The fishermen first want to know what fishing quotas are sustainable to fish, before a commercial fishery opens. Otherwise, the normal practice would be to start fishing as soon as possible – before any restictions are in place.

Tom Arnbom, Northeast Passage day 8: Fantastic Mr Arctic fox!

23 July, 2009GeneralNortheast Passage expedition, WWFuser

Voyaging around Svalbard. Photo by Tom Arnbom

DAY 8

We managed through the storm and found a safe harbour. At most it was blowing 26 m/s which is full storm, and the sea water temperature was minus one. We lingered around the coast of Edgeöya and finally anchored at Disco, a bird colony of kittiwakes.
The gulls are breeding in a canyon and the noise and foul smell is part of the local flavour. A curious arctic fox checks us out before heading to the colony to find some eggs or injured birds. The fox’s fur is brown – this is its summer fur. In winter the arctic fox is pure white. Here on Svalbard the Arctic fox is doing fine, while in Scandinavia the population is very low – on the brink of becoming extinct – although last summer was a relatively good one for the Scandinavian population.

An arctic fox with its brown summer coat. Photo by Tom Arnbom

After intensive hunting of artic foxes for their fur in Sweden, Finland and Norway, the population was very low – in addition the lemming and vole populations was severely reduced for almost twenty years so the arctic fox also almost became extinct in Sweden and Norway. In Finland no breeding has taken place for several years now.
The future looks pretty bleak for the Scandinavian population of the arctic fox. The tree-line is climbing higher and higher which is bad in two ways. First, the open tundra habitat is shrinking, which is where the arctic fox lives – and on top of that, with the treeline comes the red fox which competes with its smaller cousin. The red fox takes over the dens of the arctic fox, and it can even kill the arctic fox.
But here on Svalbard, the arctic foxes are thriving, at least during the summer when the bird colonies are full of eggs and chicks.

Tom Arnbom, Northeast Passage day 5 & 6: Close encounters of the bear kind

22 July, 2009From the field, General, Polar bearsNortheast Passage expedition, svalbard, WWFuser

A polar bear in the distance - but it was soon to come a lot closer! Photo by Tom Arnbom

Tom Arnbom of WWF Sweden is spending some time with the team on the Northeast Passage expedition. He will be blogging regularly for the Arctic Programme’s Sending the Signal blog while he is there. Here is his update from the fifth and sixth day of the expedition.
DAY 5
Watch a video on the website of Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet of Tom and the Explorer team’s close encounter with the bear
After another beautiful night with the midnight sun, I get a few hours sleep before it is time for breakfast. BUT what a breakfast! While having muesli I see two different polar bears – that is luxury above all means. One of them, is like frozen to the ground, not moving a single bit, just beside a breathing hole for a seal. The white bear is hunting ringed seals. I see the seal coming up in an alternative breathing hole 15 metres from the large predator. But the polar does not move. After 15 minutes, the bear gives up and linger off. Not bad for breakfast time.

Hannibal goes in for an icy plunge. Photo by Tom Arnbom

It is getting colder, and the long johns are on all the time. A cold northerly cuts through all our clothing. We are heading south to get away from the bad weather which is forecasted. Hannibal does not care about the chill, and makes a dive north of the 80th latitude.
DAY 5 – LATE NIGHT
Close to Hinlopen, we force the bow into the sea ice and stay put. At a small distance away, a polar bear is lying on its back with all four paws in the air and scratching its back. It seems not to care less about us.
Suddenly, the bear changes its behaviour. It stands up, sniffs and looks at the boat Explorer of Sweden. Slowly it walks in a zig-zag track towards us. It comes closer and closer – a hundred metres turns into fifty metres, twenty metres. We are all on alert and barely breathing – only whispers. Both Ola and Per-Magnus bring out their weapons and other protective gear – such as sound blasters, both are ready just in case …
The polar bear gets more and more curious and it makes its way all the way to our sailing vessel. It is a bit nervy and the adrenalin is flowing. When it puts the paws on the bow it was close to the limit where we felt safe – the polar bear is incredibly fast and strong so you need margins!
The bear went away from the boat but came back again, this time with higher speed. Ola honked the boat horn – the sound blast is very loud – but the bear barely flinched. So Per-Magnus threw a sound blaster in font of the bear – the high bang surprised the bear – which stops within a metre.

The bear comes close to the boat. Photo by Tom Arnbom

In less than a second the bear runs off away from these ”unfriendly” humans who do not want to get a close contact. The bear stopped after a hundred metres and turned around, gave us a long look and then slowly wandered off to the glacier at the horizon. An encounter to remember – both for us and the bear.

The bear sniffs the air and comes even closer! Photo by Tom Arnbom

The wind picked up, blowing half storm and the seawater temperature is now below zero degrees. Freezing.
DAY 6
After the close encounter with the polar bear we steam south. The wind is now really strong, storm and the water temperature is now the unbelievable minus 1.4 degrees. Not my cup of tea for a swim. It is very very cold and we do not go outside voluntarily.
We sail by an endless glacier front. The colour is ice blue. I just read that during the last five years the Arctic sea ice has lost around 15 cm per year in thickness, that is unbelievably fast. It is going much quicker than anybody has foreseen. This means that the annual ice is dominating the Arctic, and the sea ice can therefore melt off very quickly if the ”right” conditions come. When the white sea ice melts away the sea is opening up and the dark blue water will be warmed up by the sun. The sea will in its turn melt off more sea ice, a process which might not be halted. But we can halt the climate changes if we want.
A first step is a very good climate agreement in Copenhagen in December this year.

Viewing the 'endless glacier' from the boat. Photo by Tom Arnbom

Tom Arnbom, Northeast passage day 2, 3 & 4: Sighting polar bears and walrus

21 July, 2009From the field, General, Polar bearsNortheast Passage expedition, svalbard, WWFuser

The midnight sun on Svalbard

Norwegian scientist Geir Wing Gabrielsen. Photo by Tom Arnbom.

He tells us that in addition to the climate change directly affecting the escalating melting of sea ice, pollutants are having a larger effect on animals as a result climate change. The reason is that many of the top predators have a large storage of body fat, and in non-degradable pollutants are stored in the fat.
When the animals have difficulty find their preferred food, such as polar bears and ivory gulls, the pollutants find their way out in the organs, when the stored fat is all used up. The scientists in Ny-Ålesund have seen changes in some species already due to this heavier pollutant burden.
In addition to climate change, more pollutants are expected to come with currents, both in the air and in the water.
DAY 4
Walrus galore. Today we have been lucky to see some walrus ashore but also on a small ice floe. The Atlantic walrus was heavily hunted for several hundred years before it was protected. Today, they are slowly coming back in numbers, especially in Svalbard.

Walrus on the ice on Svalbard. Photo by Tom Arnbom

Another walrus rests on the icy shore. Photo by Tom Arnbom

In eastern Russia and in Alaska, the Pacific walrus population is having problems. The main one is that the arctic sea water is warmer than before, which causes the summer sea ice to melt. Walruses usually rest on the sea ice between feeding dives, but when the sea ice is gone, walruses come ashore in large colonies to rest. The haul-outs can be far away from the feeding areas, and when many animals come together – there is a risk that they might stamp each other to death. This has happened during the last few years, and several thousand walruses have died.

The magnificent spectacle of the Svalbard coastline. Photo by Tom Arnbom

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