At first, we couldn鈥檛 see the whales themselves. There were simply a few seemingly small plumes of water blowing out of the sea in the distance, a faint 鈥減fft鈥� sound on the wind as each plume popped into the air. Our expedition leader for the trip along Greenland鈥檚 eastern coast, the polar explorer , announced over the loudspeakers: 鈥淭here is a group of about 20 to 40 whales about a kilometre ahead on the starboard side of the ship; come out to the observation deck to have a look.鈥�
As we pulled closer, it became increasingly obvious that Greg and his team had underestimated the number of whales. The plumes multiplied and spread, the slippery backs and blowholes of the humpback whales coming into view below them, until the ship was surrounded. There weren鈥檛 20 whales or 40 whales, but hundreds, maybe even 1000. The captain cut the ship鈥檚 engines, and all we could hear was the splash of fins, the 鈥減oof鈥� of whale breath, and the occasional 鈥渨hoa, over there鈥� from passengers and crew members.
We had travelled to Greenland with 91av Discovery Tours to see a total solar eclipse. Just four days earlier, the group, along with the entire crew and staff of our ship, the Sylvia Earle, had stood transfixed and in awe as the moon hid the face of the sun and the sky grew dark in the middle of the day. I thought that would be the most astonishing thing I鈥檇 see during the two-week voyage. I was wrong.
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Since about 2000, the population of baleen whales, which use a sort of natural sieve in their mouths to filter their food from the water, has exploded in eastern Greenland. 鈥淲e know from the communities there that they never used to see all these baleen whales 鈥� maybe a minke whale once in a while, but never all these humpbacks and fin whales,鈥� says , a researcher at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources who studies the animal population of this region.聽
This is most likely happening because the ice that used to cover Greenland鈥檚 eastern coast, rendering it inaccessible to whales and ships alike, has receded significantly in the last few decades, while at the same time the warmer water in the area has produced a huge influx of the krill and small fish that make up baleen whales鈥� diets. This is obviously bad for many species of Arctic wildlife, whose habitats are rapidly shrinking, but for baleen whales, which winter in much warmer equatorial waters, it is like a magnet drawing them to feed.
贬别颈诲别-闯酶谤驳别苍蝉别苍鈥檚 has shown that the number of humpback whales in the region is up to about 4000, leading to feeding frenzies in which they, along with fin and minke whales, consume about 1 million tonnes of food during the four months they reside there each year.
That was precisely what we saw. As each whale neared the surface, it would first exhale into the sky, then turn on its side, opening its mouth to take in a huge draught of water. The entire front half of the whale went from a streamlined triangle shape to a bulging, rippling pouch of sea as it closed its maw. The next part of this so-called lunge-feeding behaviour happened underwater, where we couldn鈥檛 see it, but the water rushed out through the whale鈥檚 baleen, leaving the tiny creatures that constituted its lunch trapped inside.
In the end, we saw one last humpback whale fluke splash a few metres ahead of the ship, and then they were past us, the white patches on their fins glistening an otherworldly aquamarine through the water. We got under way again, stunned by what we had just witnessed, as they turned back into a copse of distant plumes and then disappeared.
When I finally wandered down towards lunch 鈥� how strange to follow such a profound experience of natural majesty with such a mundane one as a lunch buffet 鈥� every person I met was grinning and glassy-eyed, much as we had been in the moments after the eclipse. We didn鈥檛 know that we had seen as many as one-quarter of the humpback whales in the region, but we knew we had seen something special.
The expedition crew, with well over 100 years of experience among them sailing the polar regions, all said they had never seen anything like it. I spotted more than a few tears, and I may have shed some myself. And with events like this increasing, you can bet that I will be back, even without a solar eclipse to lure me north.
Arctic expedition cruise with Professor Helen Czerski: Svalbard, Norway
Embark on an unforgettable marine expedition aboard an intimate polar vessel, exploring the northernmost region of Earth, the realm of the polar bear and the midnight sun. Gain extensive knowledge of marine and polar nature in this land of awe-inspiring beauty and untamed wilderness, while deepening your connection to this remote and rugged archipelago.
