Christian, Principal Ecologist in our Brighton office, has had an exciting double ecologist life for some years … “I’ve been working as a naturalist onboard cruise ships in the Antarctic since 2002/03, and in the Arctic since 2021/22.
The role includes delivering a series of lectures on polar science, history and wildlife, providing interpretation for passengers, and leading small guiding groups (birds/marine mammals). For Arctic cruises the main destination is Southern Greenland and the north coast of Iceland, both of which are within the ecological boundary of the European Arctic (i.e. the treeline and 10oC Isotherm) and on the edge of the Arctic Circle. For this summer’s trip, we spent time in and around Greenland, crossing the Denmark Strait, navigating Prince Christian Sound (a scenic waterway in the south), rounding the southern tip at Cape Farewell and making some stops at small settlements (Qaqortoq and Nanortalik). The weather was generally good around Greenland, with some days of clear skies and high pressure, which is a rarity, in general the south has a strong oceanic or maritime climate with high rainfall and strong winds. The weather out to sea was another matter, three of the four crossings of the North Atlantic featured storm to hurricane force winds (>60 knots) and heavy swell.
The majority of Greenland (>80%) supports the Greenland Icesheet, the second largest in the world after the Antarctic, with a mean height of around 1500m above sea level. Much of the icesheet is not visible from the coast, locked up behind mountain ranges and only visible as a series of outlet glaciers calving into narrow channels. As such, the majority of visitors to Greenland, who do not make a trip inland, will see a very different country, one of lush vegetation and grassland meadows, and in some rare cases wooded valleys, particularly on the sheltered sides of fjords in the south. Here, there is an abundance of flowering species (over 2,200 vascular plant species are present in the Arctic, with many found north of the Arctic Circle) including some familiar names from home, including Gentian, Butterwort, Orchids and a variety of Sedges and Rushes (see photos). There is also abundant non-vascular plants and fungi, such as waxcap (Hygrocybe) species, which were visible in some of the dwarf shrub heaths visited during the trip (see photos). In terms of fauna, much of the interest is tied to the oxygen rich, cold waters surrounding Greenland, with marine mammals such as seal (Harp and Bearded the most frequently seen) and cetaceans. Humpback, Minke and Fin whale were all regularly seen from the ship and are the most common larger cetaceans in the area, likely filling the niche left by the Right and Bowhead whale, driven to near extinction by European fisheries in the 19th century. Further out to sea, Atlantic white-sided dolphin, Long-finned pilot whale and Beaked whales are also occasionally sighted. It is worth bearing in mind that most of the communities in Greenland carry out some small-scale hunting of marine mammals, the local Inuit regularly hunt seal, Beluga and Minke whale, mainly for their own consumption.
Most visitors will be onboard to see the ice, and will not leave disappointed. Although most of the winter sea ice in the south has melted by late summer, there are abundant icebergs calving continually from the icesheet and almost every fjord and inlet will have bergs, from lines of brash ice caught in the tide, to large tabular bergs grounded against the coast. Greenland is one of a handful of places in the world where large icebergs are ever present and relatively safe to navigate for visitor ships. For how long is another matter. Most estimates suggest that global warming in the Arctic reached a tipping point around 1999/2000, and the question is not if, but when the Greenland Icesheet collapses. Almost all the Ice shelves have disappeared (ice fixed to the land but floating above the surface of the sea), the glaciers are in retreat and the icesheet is shrinking. This reduction in ice, along with the reduction in sea ice, weakens the albedo effect (the mechanism whereby ice reflects the sun’s heat, providing a cooling effect, compared to dark, ice-free water which absorbs radiation, heating the surface) creating a feedback loop of warming, ultimately leading to an unstable climate, sea level rise and more chaotic and dangerous weather. One of our goals onboard is to make sure passengers understand climate change and how important it is now to make the right choices and potential changes in their lives. It helps to be able to show people these remarkable places to get this message across – in the words of the pioneering explorer and polar tour operator, Lars-Eric Lindblad, ‘You can’t protect what you don’t know’.
Of particular resonance is seeing species which people are often familiar with back home. Aside from plants, the most significant of these tend to be the migratory bird species which many will know from the winter shores and estuaries of Britain, including Brent and Barnacle geese, Godwits, Sanderlings and a whole raft of ducks, swans, waders, gulls, and geese. Seeing these species in their summer home often helps challenge the notion that some may have of the polar regions being far away and a separate entity, of little relevance to their lives, outside an exotic holiday. The presence of well-known species – which some people may consider ‘native’ to the UK – in their other home, vividly brings to life how deeply connected our world is to the polar regions. Something which we will also be keenly aware of in the coming weeks as we begin our programme of wintering bird surveys in the UK, looking to record some of these travellers from the Far North, as they start to arrive on our shores this autumn.
Wintering Bird surveys mainly take the form of shore-based observations of wading and wetland birds, either on coastal habitats (shorelines, mudflats etc) or in coastal farmland/grazing marsh. These can start in September to pick up the earliest arriving species and/or passage migrants (species which stop here for a time before moving further south) and will continue through to March or early April”.
Information on our bird survey services can be found here