The Arctic, an ocean surrounded by land, a place whose dramatic primal beauty evokes feelings of rare intensity. From the unspoilt coastline of the Russian Far East and the Northeast Passage, to the majestic Arctic Norway; the archipelago of Svalbard; the fjords of Greenland; the geology of Iceland to the mythical Northwest Passage an expedition cruise to the Arctic is a rare opportunity to escape into the immensity of this region and experience wildlife and flora seen nowhere else in the world.
From the dauntless early Vikings right through history to our modern day explorers, the exploration of the Arctic is imbued with romance, set against a backdrop of stunning beauty and wildlife. The home of the polar bear, walrus, narwhal, delicate flora and an incredible array of seabirds. The vast wilderness of the Arctic will astound you with its rich history, stunning scenery and wildlife.
The Arctic |
Dance under the Aurora Borealis |
Cross the Arctic Circle |
Land on the North Pole |
Snorkel with Orca |
The magical dancing lights of the Aurora Borealis are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth’s atmosphere.
Pale green and pink are the most common colours of the Auroral display, although shades of red, yellow, green, blue and violet have been reported. The lights of the aurora take many different forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow.
The name ‘Narwhal’ is Old Norse in origin. The Latin name translates to one tooth, one horn. There are only two teeth in the narwhal, both in the upper jaw. The tusk is one-third to one-half as long as the head and body and sometimes reaches a length of 300 cm. In rare cases the right tooth also forms a tusk. Occasionally one or even two tusks develop in a female. The tusk of the Narwhal is made up of a stunning ivory. The spiral structure gives it the appearance of twisted taffy – no wonder it was sold in the middle ages as unicorn horn!
Baffin Island Inuits live on the largest island in the Arctic Archipelago and in the territory of Nunavut, Canada. Baffin Island has been inhabited by the Inuits for thousands of years. As descendants of the Thule, who expanded eastward across Canada from Alaska in the 12th and 13th centuries, Baffin Island Inuits (like other modern Inuit) share biological and cultural links with their Thule ancestors.
The Baffin Island Inuit display considerable regional diversity in both dialect and culture. Those in the far north belong to the Iglulik (Igloolik), who also live on the mainland. The remaining groups often collectively referred to as the South Baffin Island Inuit are concentrated along the rugged east coast. Regions include Cumberland Sound and Frobisher Bay, and along the north shore of Hudson Strait. The latter share many cultural traits with the Labrador Inuit on the other side of Hudson Strait, which was frequently crossed for trading purposes. The use of oral history and traditional knowledge provided by Inuit groups and elders helps to clarify their unique perspectives on pre-European modes of life.
Imagine standing on the only spot on the planet where no matter which direction you step it will always be South. The North Pole is the northernmost point on Earth. It is the exact point of the intersection of the Earth’s axis and its surface.
At 90 degrees north, it’s only possible to travel south and all lines of longitude meet there. With Polaris, the North Star directly overhead of the North Pole it has been a central navigation point throughout the centuries. Lying in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean the North Pole is usually covered with ice making landing possible.
The last place on earth where mammoths are said to have survived. Lying in the Arctic Ocean on the 180° meridian between the Chukchi Sea and Eastern Siberian Sea is Wrangel Island. Remote and isolated its closest neighbour is 60 km to the east is the rocky Herald Island.
In 1976, Wrangel Island was established as a Nature Reserve by the Russian Government. The declaration as a Nature Reserve allows the protection of colonies of Snow geese, Polar bears and walrus that flourish on the Island. The Reserve is one of the most treasured sanctuaries in Russia.
Wrangel Island is inhabited by approximately 100 Eastern Siberian Yupik and Chukchi people in a small village called Ushakovskoe. The village also serves as a base camp for up to 30 seasonal reserve staff. A strict protocol has been established for entry into the Reserve, with only official personnel and invited guests being allowed to enter, ensuring the Reserves protection and the sustainability of this precious region.
It could be said the Polar beat epitomises the Arctic. The sight of such an impressive silky white bear wandering the frozen Arctic seas in search of seals symbolizes the cold, remote nature of the Arctic. Polar bears are marine mammals because they spend so much of their lives away from land. In the high Arctic where there is sea ice to travel on, Polar bears range over ice floes in the pack ice hunting seals all summer. In areas like the southern Hudson Bay and southern Svalbard they are simply forced to come ashore. Polar bears rarely venture inland.
Fact:While Polar bears appear to have white fur, it is actually transparent and their black skin give the impression that their fur is white. They are the largest of all land-based carnivores and exceptionally fast able to travel at speeds of up to 40kph.
Aside from the Polar bear, the Musk ox is probably the most truly Arctic of the northern land mammals. It is often said to be an artifact species surviving from the late Pleistocene and the last ice age. Of course, all living Arctic animals are somehow survivors of the last ice age, but the Musk ox looks the part more. Musk oxen have historically been associated with the hunting cultures of early mankind. Their meat and hides have been used for food, clothing, and shelter, while their horns and bones were carved to make tools and crafts. Currently natural populations exist in Arctic areas from northern Canada to Greenland at very high latitudes, and introduced populations exist in northern Europe, Russia, and Alaska.
Fact:So well adapted to the Arctic tundra, the Musk Oxen's hooves are so strong they can break through solid ice get to the water that lies beneath.
The walrus is the largest pinniped in the Arctic and is nearly devoid of hair. It has distinctive tusks which are used as levers to move its heavy body on land, and as weapons. Walruses occupy a nearly circumpolar distribution in three distinct populations, the Atlantic, Pacific and the Laptev Sea. They are very easily recognized for their large tusks in both males and females. Male’s tusks are usually longer. Males are 3–4 times larger than females (about 1700 kg v. 400 kg). Only the two species of elephant seals are larger pinnipeds. Walruses also have very stiff beard bristles, called vibrissae, which grow up to 30cm in length. The vibrissae are important for foraging and get worn down fairly quickly and are regrown every year.
Fact:Walrus love shellfish, it's is by far their most favourite food. Diving to the ocean's depths, they use their hyper sensitive whiskers to detect shellfish in the darkness. According to one study, Walrus can apparently consume upwards of 4,000 clams in one sitting.
Relatively small the Arctic Tern has light grey underparts, darker grey upper parts, and a black cap when in breeding plumage. Their long, forked tails and slender wings, provide them with exceptional manoeuvrability. With the ability to hover, they can quickly swoop in to collect food or steal it from other species. As the Northern winter falls the Tern’s set off on an epic migration from the Arctic to Antarctica.
Fact:Arctic Terns have one of the long migration routes of all birds, travelling over 90,000 kilometers each year. So long are their migrations routes, that the Arctic Tern has mastered the art of gliding so well, that it can glide, sleep and remain on course.
The blue whale is the largest animal to ever have lived on earth. The largest specimen measured was killed in the south Atlantic and processed at Grytviken in South Georgia. It was 31.4 m long and about 100 tonnes. Blue whales have a broad, mottled back with very small dorsal fin positioned far back. Due to hunting they are uncommon in the northern hemisphere, but good populations still occur along the central California coast and in the Gulf of St.Lawrence. They have a very tall and straight blow by which they can be identified at a distance.
Fact:The Blue whale as we all know is the largest of all animals to have existed, however it is also one the loudest animal and in spite of its incredible size, its feeds off one of the smallest life forms on the planet, Krill.
With the big black eyes and impeccable white coats, Harp seals are one of the most famous seals in the Arctic. Hunting of the young pups,pure white coats created considerable controversy during the 1980s. The ‘whitecoat’ hunting has been stopped, but other hunting continues.
Harp seals are found in the Arctic Atlantic ranging from the waters surrounding Greenland and Newfoundland to the Cara and Barents Seas of Russia. During breeding they segregate into three very distinct populations based on where they breed.
Fact:At around 7 years for the males and 12 years for the females a harp-shaped marking appears on the seals coat and this is where their names comes from.
Glide through the Arctic waters discovering dramatic fjords, majestic icebergs and a plethora of Arctic wildlife. Walrus, Seals, Arctic hare, massive Bowheads, playful Belugas and the elusive Narwhal ply the icy waters, while Polar bear, Musk ox, breathtaking flora and hundreds of migrating birds make their home on shore and in the cliffs.
It’s where the land, the sea, the air and the ice all meet. Allowing those who do not polar scuba dive to explore the Arctic sea from below is a unique adventure.
Scuba diving in the Arctic is a unique diving experience; where icebergs, drifting pack ice, seal holes and the Arctic sea floor creates exception opportunities. The beauty of the Arctic extends far beyond its pristine white landscapes. Lying beneath the untouched white is a unique world that few have ever experienced.
Expeditions’ create a lifetime of memories, helping you to immortalise these on camera are photography guides.Technical advice and hints will be given in the field, lectures during the voyage and in pre-departure workshops. These expeditions are suitable for the amateur photographer to the more experienced.
There are very few places you can swim with Orcas. Our expeditions from Norway operates when the herring are migrating bringing these beautiful mammals to the region. These expeditions operate in the Northern hemisphere winter with the light giving way to excellent photography opportunities in the crystal clear water. This is a truly remarkable adventure and expedition.
Our polar adventure activity programs are meticulously prepared by some of the world’s most experienced guides. All expedition adventure activities are subject to weather and environmental conditions. Adventure activities are not available on all expeditions or regions and will be operated at the discretion of the expedition leader
The vastness, remoteness and wildness of the Arctic evoke different images for different people. You may immediately imagine an ice-covered polar waste, perhaps with a polar bear ambling along. Others may think of the Inuit, the Sámi, or the Pomor who are the people of the north. Perhaps the image will be of adventure and exploration reaching back to the Viking age or more recently the race for the North Pole along with its subsequent controversies.
To the Greeks, Arktis was the constellation of the Great Bear (Greek arktos = bear) – a constellation that was always found in the northern sky. Eventually the name of that constellation came to refer to the far north as a geographical region, the Arctic.
The Arctic is not so easily defined as the Antarctic. There is no polar continent as in the south. Instead an ice-covered polar ocean is surrounded by North America and Eurasia. Consequently, there is no political definition of the Arctic. Eight different countries have sovereign territory within the area: Canada, Denmark (Greenland-Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.
There are various ways to define the southern limits of the Arctic. Geographically, the Arctic Circle (66° 33’ north) is one of the most common ways to define the Arctic. Because we are interested in the environment and the wildlife, the best way to describe the Arctic may be with environmental criteria. The northern limit of trees is a convenient border of the Arctic – the transition where the forested areas of the south give way to the unique, treeless tundra of the north.
This largely coincides with areas with an average July temperature of 10°C. So far north, ice in the form of glaciers, sea ice, or permafrost in the ground shapes the land and affects the lives of all plants and animals. Using the tree line as a definition, the Arctic extends as far south as 52° north by Labrador and the Aleutians and just touches the mainland of Norway, at about 71° north.
It is this physical connection with the continents to the south – their plants, their wildlife and their people – that has made the Arctic such a fascinating mixture of the familiar, the unusual and the spectacular.
The Northern Lights, are poetry, they are natures’ light show varying from faint streaks of pale colour to vast shimmering curtains of light spreading from one horizon to the other, they are quantum leaps in the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere. They are manifestations of elementary particle physics, as well as the source of superstition, mythology and fairy tales. They have filled people with wonder and inspired artists. They have frightened people to think the end is at hand. More Info...
The aurora is caused by charged particles from the sun streaming along the earth’s magnetic field. The charged particles are channelled by the earth’s magnetic field so that they approach the earth’s atmosphere along lines of force near the magnetic poles. As the particles encounter the atmosphere (between 100 and 300 km above the ground), some of them will collide with molecules of oxygen or nitrogen in the atmosphere and cause the molecules to
glow-just as the neon gas in a neon light glows when excited by electricity.
Because of the shape of the magnetic field, the particles stream toward earth in a pattern that is called the northern lights oval. It is a belt of greatest auroral activity (with little activity in the middle) that is centred on the magnetic pole.
The northern lights oval sweeps across northern Scandinavia and along the far north coast of Russia, from there it covers part of northern Alaska and swings south across Hudson Bay in Canada. The oval covers only the southern quarter of Greenland and sweeps over Iceland to complete the oval over Scandinavia. It is generally believed that the frequency of the northern lights increases with latitude, but this is not true. The chances of seeing an aurora in Svalbard is less than seeing one in Iceland, Southern Greenland, or the mainland of Norway.
The 11 year cycle of sunspot activity affects the frequency and intensity of auroral activity. The plasma expelled by the sun bathes the entire earth in its stream, so both the north and south magnetic poles are associated with the aurora. In fact, it has been shown that auroras are linked in the two hemispheres. The aurora occurs at night or day, but the brightness of the sun during the Arctic summer overwhelms the weaker light produced by the aurora. It is only seen when the sky is dark.
CollapsePolar bears are the top predator in the Arctic marine ecosystem.Because the polar bear's body requires a diet based on large amounts of seal fat, they are the most carnivorous member of the bear family. Food can be hard to come by for polar bears for much of the year. The bear puts on most of its yearly fat reserves between late April and mid-July to maintain its weight in the lean seasons. The food-free season can last 3 to 4 months -- or even longer in areas like Canada's Hudson Bay. As the Arctic warms due to climate change, the ice pack is forming later in the season, and bears must wait longer to begin hunting again. More Info...
Seals are a particularly energy-rich food source, especially for hungry mothers and their growing cubs. Polar bears can devour huge amounts of fat from seals when this prey is abundant. Polar bears largely eat ringed and bearded seals, but depending upon their location, they may eat harp, hooded and ribbon seal.
A 121-pound seal can provide 8 days worth of energy - but the bear needs to eat much more in order to store up reserves.
When there are plenty of seals, adult polar bears only eat the fat, leaving the carcass for scavengers such as foxes, ravens and younger bears.
CollapseNo, penguins live in Antarctica not the Arctic. However, the term “penguin” derives from an Arctic species, whose scientific name is Pinguinus impennis, know as the Great auk. This bird was distributed from temperate latitudes in the North Atlantic to the Arctic. It was a seabird of great stature, exceeding 50 cm, and, like penguins in the Southern Hemisphere, flightless and very agile in the water but extremely clumsy on land and therefore highly vulnerable to hunters and those who stole their eggs from their nests. More Info...
Interestingly though, various penguin species have lived in the Arctic through the ages. During the 19th century, several research groups tried to introduce penguins into the Arctic environment. Unfortunately, the penguins were unable to protect their eggs from the predators of the North and the introduction subsequently failed.
Often referred to as the Penguin of the North, the Great Auk became extinct in 1844. Interesting the term is derived from the Great Auks scientific name - Pinguinus impennis. At a height of 50cm, flightless, agile in the water, yet clumsy on land, the Great Auk had many attributes likened to today’s penguin species, however it was never consider an office species of penguin.
CollapseAlthough the name ‘Eskimo’ is often used to refer to all Inuit, Greenland, and Yupik (Bering Sea coastal people) native people of the world, the name is considered derogatory in many places because it was given by non-Inuit people and was said to mean ‘eater of raw meat’. Linguists now believe that ‘Eskimo’ is derived from an Ojibwa word meaning ‘to net snowshoes.’ However, the people of Canada and Greenland prefer other names. ‘Inuit’, meaning ‘the people’, is used in most of Canada (one individual is called an ‘Inuk’) and Inupiat in Alaska. Other local designations are used as well. The Inuit people of Greenland refer to themselves as ‘Greenlanders’ or ‘Kalaallit’ in their language, which they call ‘Greenlandic’ or ‘Kalaallisut’. The language is called ‘Inuktitut’ in eastern Canada and ‘Inupiat’ in Alaska. Most Alaskan natives continue to accept the name ‘Eskimo’, particularly because ‘Inuit’ refers only to the Inupiat of northern Alaska, the Inuit of Canada, and the Kalaallit of Greenland More Info...
Inuit cultures extend from Alaska, to Greenland and Canada.
CollapseThe ozone hole over Antarctica is a well known annual phenomenon and research into its formation led scientists to look for an ozone hole in the Arctic. The phenomena that result in the formation of an ozone hole are present at both poles, but several key factors must come together to deplete the protective ozone layer. First, ozone-depleting chemicals such as chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) must be present in the stratosphere. Second, clouds of ice crystals must be present to provide a substrate for CFCs to participate in chemical reactions. Finally, the weather in the stratosphere must be stable enough so that all the factors will accumulate in the dark of winter and still be present in the spring when the sun returns and furnishes the energy needed to drive the chemical reactions. Such conditions occur every year over the South Pole, but only occasionally over the North Pole. More Info...
Requiring signicant weeks during the winter months to be below -78 degress, for an Ozone Hole to be created. Currently the Arctic's winters are not cold or long enough to allow the formation of an Ozone Hole.
CollapseThere are 189 fish species listed for Greenland and over 300 are found in the Arctic waters around the coast of North America and Iceland. During the short summer, when so much sunlight falls on the Arctic, the waters become very productive. That richness offers excellent conditions for so many species. About 10% of the species can be considered economically important. For example, Icelanders haul about 2 million tonnes of fish out of the ocean each year, about half of that is capelin. The main economy of Greenland is fishing and fleets from the USA and Canada harvest millions of tonnes each year from the north Pacific and Atlantic. The most important species for commercial operations in the North American Arctic are salmon, halibut, hake and king crabs. Around Iceland, cod is king. More Info...
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CollapseEmbark on a circumnavigation of Newfoundland and sail into Eastern Canada’s breathtaking natural beauty.
Discover the stunning beauty of Svalbard with our beautiful and intimate 12-passenger ship, M/S Stockholm
This fascinating expedition provides a taste of everything Spitsbergen has to offer.
Join accomplished and legendary wildlife photographer Paul Goldstein and our veteran guide duo John Rodsted and Mette Eliseussen, on a small ship photo expedition to explore Spitsbergen with just 12 guests on the magnificent MV Vikingfjord.
Your Arctic Discovery voyage leaves from Greenland, and circles around Baffin Bay in the Canadian Arctic.
This fascinating expedition provides a taste of everything Spitsbergen has to offer.
Join an epic adventure in Greenland and experience summer in the Arctic on our classic Disko Bay voyage.
Enjoy the fantastically beautiful landscapes, adventurous landings, and shoreline hikes.
This fascinating expedition provides a taste of everything Spitsbergen has to offer.