In July 2024 we went on an expedition cruise to Svalbard – lucky enough to travel on Scenic Eclipse which is a modern cruise ship capable of going into Arctic and Antarctic waters. This was the furthest north we had travelled and in fact we were able to cruise to the line of the sea ice and through the ice to an area of melted sea, in search of polar bears. We were in luck as somebody with eagle eyes spotted a polar bear that had recently made a kill – we were too far away to see the details. If you look to the right of the polar bear in the 2nd photo, you can make out the shape of an all white bird – this is the rarely seen Ivory Gull. Had I known this bird was there, I may have tried to focus and get a sharper shot but my attention was given to the polar bear. We saw 10 polar bears in total which was brilliant. At this time of the year, the bears are struggling to find food.

We saw other wildlife in the Arctic – reindeer, Kittiwake, Guillemots, Little Auks and Fulmar to name but a few. We landed several times under careful supervision to ensure we were safe and also showing huge respect for this fragile environment. Strict rules apply and these rules are to be tightened up even more from January 2025. This is good news as we need to protect the extremities to our planet and the wildlife living there. Please let’s not let tourism spoil these beautiful areas.

Enjoy the photos – many were distant shots as we rightly had to comply with the rules.

Click through to view my other posts, including Antarctica where wildlife is frequently a lot closer to photograph.