Epic voyage - the animals

The list is unbelievably long. We may have actually seen more mammals than we even saw birds, if that is even possible. At Yttygran Island we searched for wildlife in the ship’s inflatable Zodiac boats. On our way back from the Island we found ourselves in a migrating pod of Orca Whales. We stopped and positioned the Zodiac in what appeared to be their path, and got a spectacular show. We were maybe as close as 100 feet away at times as they surfaced!

In Penkigney Bay, we thought we smelled Musk Ox again, but knew they were back in Nome. What it was instead was a massive haul out of Walrus. Behaviorally, they sun themselves on low bars adjacent to the water, usually narrow points to allow quick escape should a bear or fox decide to saunter on by. At this haul out they estimated there were 800 Walrus, but just doing some finger counting from our 100-meter distance, I suspect it was far closer to 1,000.

Pegnigney Bay, as a National Park, regulated how close to the haul out you could come – no closer than the 100 meters I mentioned. However, many of the Walrus were in the water, and found our Zodiacs to be of interest. Since there were no regulations on distance when the Walrus were in the water, we got to within 20 feet or so from their quizzical starring. It was comical!

Near Vankarem Village we had a chance to see a Ringed Seal. A Ringed Seal is a True Seal in that it has no ears. There are True Seals and there are Eared Seals. The Seals in the Arctic don’t have ears, and from what our naturalist told us, we were very lucky to get to see one of these guys – very rare!

While we didn’t get to land on Wrangel Island, that was OK. In 1921, a crew of 4 men and an Inuit woman, Ada Blackjack, was left on Wrangel Island on a mission to claim it for Canada or Britain. They were to be there a year. In 1922, the island was iced in, and a resupply vessel was never able to land. By 1923, all 4 men had perished, and only Ada was left to be rescued when a boat was finally able to reach the island in late summer. So, I guess not being able to land is reasonably common. We did, however, spot this Polar Bear hunting on the ice a few miles from the Island.

Near Uelen Village we got a clear view of one Steller Sea Lion. Named for Georg Wilhem Steller, a botanist who had sailed with Vitus Bering on his 2^nd expiation to discover America in 1740. Steller identified and named a number of birds and mammals – one we see all the time in the West but never knew where the name came from, is the Steller Jay. Of all the mammals that Steller identified and named, 2 of them, the Steller’s Sea Cow and the Spectacled Cormorant became extinct during his lifetime.

In the bay near Provideniya we spotted several Grey Whales migrating to the cooler waters of the summer for breeding purposes. We also spotted some Blue Whales, but from the distance we were, it was pretty hard to identify which were the Blue and which were the Grey. Our naturalist told us that the majority of what we saw were Grey Whales. It was always fun to try to predict which of their surfacing motions would result in a proud display of a fluke as they dove deeply on every 4^th or 5^th breath.

At Cape Kuvyeem we spotted what would turn out to be our only land-based mammal – this ground squirrel checking us out to see if he had anything to fear. I guess you argue that the Polar Bears are land-based as well, but we only saw them on the ice, so I have to consider them to be ice floe based.

In Enmelen we finally got a glimpse of a Harbor Seal – another True Seal. Our naturalist had spotted a couple along the way of our trip, but we had not been able to get eyes on them. We were pleased to finally get eyes on one. We also spotted some Dahl’s Porpoise at a few of our stops, but they surfaced so slightly that there was never really a way to get a good picture of them. All you could see was a dark bump surfacing, and occasionally a small dorsal fin.

Anadyr was a spectacular final stop on our cruise. We had seen Orca, Blue and Grey Whales along the way, but in the harbor of Anadyr, the Beluga Whales were everywhere! Looking out from the ship, it was not uncommon to see up to a dozen spray columns from the Belugas surfacing and breathing. And as soon as those dozen spouts slowly disappeared, another half dozen or dozen would appear in a different direction. For the most part we only saw spouts accompanied by a white bulge surfacing on the water. I only saw one time where the whale showed a bit more.

Talk to you soon!