The video you are looking at was taken Sept. 16, 2015 by a UVic undergraduate student, Kathryn Purdon, who has been working with my group on the icebreaker CCGS Amundsen which is currently working in the Beaufort Sea. The video was taken near 75 N 150 W in the middle of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean.
After arriving on station and beginning work the crew noticed three polar bears in the water together which swam around to the ship when our water sampling system was nearly 3500 meters below the surface. The ship was located far from sea ice and land. Indeed, Arctic sea ice extent was the fourth lowest on record this year and there has been speculation that this imposes stress on polar bears which rely on the ice to hunt. They tested out our cable (which is made of a synthetic fiber similar to kevlar that is used in bulletproof vests) with their teeth. Shouting and arm waving failed to scare them off and there were some tense moments as damage to the cable seemed inevitable. In the end it looks like the cable survived intact. We retrieved the equipment as quickly and safely as possible so the ship could move off and give the bears their space. Of all the worries a trace metal chemist has when going to sea the loss of equipment due to polar bear attack may have been near the bottom of our list. No longer I suppose. Interesting times in the Arctic Ocean.
Video of the equipment being prepared for deployment and entering the water can be viewed in a previous diary.
Background on the Canadian Arctic GEOTRACES Expedition
This summer me and members of my research group have been aboard the CCGS Amundsen working with a group of scientists involved with the International GEOTRACES and ArcticNet programs to better understand how climate change in the Arctic is affecting important physical, biological and chemical processes and conditions in the marine environment.
The main scientific objectives of this program are as follows:
- develop novel water & circulation tracers to monitor future circulation changes in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA), an important flow path where the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean waters are connected
- assess the effect of ocean acidification on metal speciation, bioavailability and toxicity to marine organisms
- document the effect of trace chemical elements on plant and animal growth & greenhouse gas emissions
- develop better models to predict changes in ocean circulation & productivity in the CAA, their consequences in the N. Atlantic, and globally
A blog maintained by the expedition can be found
here.
12:32 PM PT: For those concerned about the health of the bears it looks like we have a mother with two, 2 year old cubs. The ship was about 150 km from the ice edge which is well within documented swimming distance for such bears. They do not look particularly fat but are also not particularly thin. The mothers behaviour indicates that she does not feel threatened and it looks like they were really just curious about the ship...and our cable.
12:49 PM PT: My calculation of distance was a little off. They were about 240 km from the ice edge. Still within documented long distance swims for these amazing animals. Shrinking sea ice extent and diminishing ice quality will likely require more energy expenditure and challenge these bears in the future given regional warming in the Arctc.