17 Jun 2014

Seals Everywhere

I am very pleased to report that our search yesterday through the thick fog for Ribbon and other seals known to occur in this region was not in vain. Our 12 hours spent scanning the area around the ship was firstly rewarded in a wonderful encounter with an adult male Ribbon Seal, who lay on the ice flow and was extremely relaxed with the ship right beside him. We would have been satisfied with just that sighting, but then all of a sudden we hit pay dirt and in a 2 hour period we conservatively estimate that we saw 350 Ribbon Seals, 350 Largha Seals, 40 Bearded Seals and 30 Ringed Seals. Because of fog, visibility was restricted to about 150 metres from the ship, so one wonders what numbers were actually out there.

We are now approaching the Malminskie Islands and the landing today is all about birds. Look out for an update tomorrow as this sea reveals more of her wild secrets.