By the Catlin Arctic Survey team
WWF is supporting the research of the Catlin Arctic Survey. This year’s research includes an expedition across the ice, as well as an ice base, both in the far north of Canada. The main purpose of the mission is to gather data on the changing Arctic Ocean currents.
Read our previous posts here and here, and an article on the WWF Global Arctic Programme website announcing the launch of the 2011 Catlin Arctic Survey here.
After 77 miles in temperatures dipping as low as -42°C, the polar explorers have completed the first phase of their expedition: a speedy 11-day crossing of Prince Gustaf Adolf Sea.
Arriving at the Catlin Ice Base at 7:45pm on Wednesday 23 March, the weary team were welcomed with warming cups of tea and a hearty meal from Ice Base Chef Fran Orio.
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Monthly Archives: March 2011
Video of polar bear and cubs in the wild in Wapusk
Peter Ewins of WWF Canada and Rhys Gerholdt of WWF US are with an ABC News crew from New York in Wapusk National Park, observing the world’s largest concentration of maternity dens for polar bears.
They shot this lovely video footage (now available on the WWF Arctic Programme YouTube channel) of a polar bear cub, and another of a polar bear and her offspring, during the trip, showing how one mum and her cub behave as they emerge from a den, and a baby bear playing at the mouth of a den
Watch them below, or read a series of blog posts about the trip, here, here, here and here. Continue reading
Catlin Arctic Survey: Breaking the ice on current research
By the Catlin Arctic Survey team
WWF is supporting the research of the Catlin Arctic Survey. This year’s research includes an expedition across the ice, as well as an ice base, both in the far north of Canada. The main purpose of the mission is to gather data on the changing Arctic Ocean currents.
Read our previous post here, and an article on the WWF Global Arctic Programme website announcing the launch of the 2011 Catlin Arctic Survey here.
At the Catlin Ice Base conditions are cooler than those faced by the expedition (-37°C) but reasonably calm weather has made setting up camp easier than expected. All 19 tents are erected, and over the week the operations team has put its efforts into preparing two sampling ice holes.
Preparing ice sampling holes. Photo: WWF / Catlin Arctic Survey
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Catlin Arctic Survey: The icy trek begins
By the Catlin Arctic Survey team
WWF is supporting the research of the Catlin Arctic Survey. This year’s research includes an expedition across the ice, as well as an ice base, both in the far north of Canada. The main purpose of the mission is to gather data on the changing Arctic Ocean currents.
Read an article on the WWF Global Arctic Programme website announcing the launch of the 2011 Catlin Arctic Survey here.
The Catlin Ice Base 2011. Photo: WWF / Catlin Arctic Survey
Ann Daniels, co-team leader, reports: “We are all happy, healthy and getting into our natural expedition rhythm. The good weather has helped us complete our daily scientific measurements without becoming too cold – although we are all feeling each of those hard-earned miles in our feet especially.” Continue reading
Polar bear team update: It’s all about energy
Breakfast at 0700 h, then out in the tracked vehicles again, trundling over 1-2 inches of fresh snow, towards the south end of Fletcher Lake at the edge of Wapusk National Park.
Read our previous updates here, here and here.
By Peter Ewins
Mayor Mike Spence and his tracking-expert brother Morris tell us joyfully that “this is the warmest day this year” – a mere 35 degrees C below zero, positively balmy! (it would be totally ‘barmy’ if we didn’t all have the top-grade cold weather clothing of course, and those fabulous Canada Goose expedition parkas!). Rhys and I have a little touch of mild frostbite on our fingertips, due to the work with the tripod, cameras and binoculars, but when you’re 100 metres away from these magnificent animals, you don’t seem to feel the cold that much! Continue reading
Polar bear team update: Today on the tundra
By Peter Ewins
Rhys and I awoke to a crystal clear dawn, a numbing -40C again, and the excitement of reconnecting with the female polar bear and her single cub that we had left at sunset yesterday evening. After one of cook Daryl’s splendid tundra breakfasts at Wat’chee lodge, we headed out in the tracked vehicles with top-notch photographers from around the world, and the ABC news crew.
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Driving on the Beaufort
By Sue Herbert
Last Saturday, we drove on the Beaufort Sea. It was quite amazing. One doesn’t often think about driving on a frozen sea, looking over vast expanses of ice on one side and low headlands on the other. We spotted fish drying racks left on the shingle beaches from the summer and fall fishing seasons, covered in snow and blowing forlornly in the wind.
The ice road to Tuktoyaktuk had recently reopened after a blizzard of massive proportions (at least from a southern perspective) hit the Delta the previous weekend, and left us stranded halfway up the Dempster highway waiting for it to reopen. After two nights in Dawson, we wended over the glorious Richardson Mountains in a long convoy of trucks, finally reaching Inuvik.
Vehicle's GPS - (C) Sue Herbert/WWF-Canada
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Update from polar bear team: Train to Chesney
By Peter Ewins
Read our first update here.
This is Churchill train station (also the Parks Canada main office), where we took the 8 p.m. train south to Chesney.
(c) Peter Ewins/WWF-Canada
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Heading north as polar bears emerge from snow dens
By Peter Ewins
It’s 0530 and my WWF-US colleague Rhys Gerholdt and I are with an ABC News crew from New York, heading up to Wapusk National Park and the world’s largest concentration of maternity dens for polar bears.
The recent science papers have sparked heightened public interest and concern for the trends and future prospects of these most southerly of the world’s wild polar bears.
Over the next week. we will be based in Wat’chee lodge in the denning areas, and hope to see firsthand how these polar bear mums and their cubs are doing as they emerge from the deep snow dens. WWF has helped support these long-term studies of polar bears in west Hudson Bay, so we are eagerly following these results and the experts’ assessments of the prospects for bears in this region of rapidly retreating sea ice.
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