One can’t visit to the Arctic without mentioning the mighty polar bear! They are fearsome creatures - can run short distances very fast, have been know to swim over 100km and can easily launch themselves out of the water to grab a basking seal. Favourite food - the Ringed seal. I’m not sure how many we ended up seeing but most were (fortunately) quite a distance from us. Our wonderful Russian crew who have been visiting this area for 15-20 years, spotted quite a few from the bridge and then the call would go out and people would flock to the bow, the fly deck or bridge while the ship carefully tracked them to get as close as was safely possible and not cause them any stress.
From the zodiacs, we saw some swimming, others sleeping on the pack ice, some going from one ice floe to the next. All well and good when you’re on ship high out of the water BUT out in the zodiacs you feel a thrill of fear that the beast could launch itself at you! But we had guns on each zodiac so we weren’t really frightened - except when we got into pack ice!
We snuck up slowly on one fatty consuming a juvenile Beluga. The Glaucous gulls and Ivory gulls were helping him! One got swatted (and injured) for his audacity.
There’s a bear out there!
Not a brilliant pic but you can tell it’s a bear - right? Taken with iPhone through binoculars. Ah the limitations of iPhones. I’m not complaining because it’s been terrific but for the distant detailed shots - no go! Definitely need to invest in a camera with decent zoom lens before Antarctic next February.
We’re about 100 m from this fatty. He could hardly stand - check out his tummy. We reckon he had been feasting on what was a Beluga once. He’d eaten most and the gulls were finishing it.
He got up for a short stroll along the beach and then came back to the remains his meal and just flopped in the sand to sleep it off. 
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