Augustabukta, Nordaustlandet, Svalbard
Someone forgot to tell the walrus the rules for close approach! We were cautious and quiet, moving slowly along the beach. Step by step and inch by inch we advanced in a tight and concentrated group. Massed on the beach at the water’s edge, a mound of walrus napped. Occasionally a flipper would elevate from the melded forms and scratch what presumably was its own body. Another would roll or readjust a head that seemed to consist mostly of impressive elongated canine teeth. We respectfully stopped, well outside of the 100-meter range and stood and watched and waited for a glimpse of at least one well-defined form to separate itself from the rest.
The glaciers of Augustabukta (Augusta Bay) on Nordaustlandet surrounded us. Silver light illuminated the calm reflective sea where colorless fragments of ice and massive chunks of blue floated. Streams meandered through the unsorted glacial till of the outwash plain, reflecting our own colorful images superimposed on a background of snow-streaked mountainsides. Purple sandpipers probed the edges of pools and ponds totally undisturbed by our presence. Black and white snow buntings flitted between us unconcerned. Life seemed to continue as if we were of no more importance than another boulder on the beach.
But curiosity must have overcome one member of the pinniped clan. We seemed to have missed its stealthy submarine approach for suddenly it was there, just beyond the water’s edge and right at our feet. The thick knobby skin wrinkled beneath its chin as it moved its head from side to side looking with first one small dark eye and then the other. Its bristly mustache drooped above the upper lip from which two ivory tusks of smallish size protruded. Nostrils flared and closed. Its back was scarred from battles with its own kind. Some were old and some a bloody red. What did it think we were? Possibly our own collective form was just a colorful lichen splattered rock for as if we were not there at all Odobenus rosmarus proceeded to take a bath, rubbing and scratching vigorously all around! We backed slowly to our waiting Zodiacs but it evidently was not finished observing us. He or she followed and sat and waited until we had all departed from the shore.
Someone forgot to tell the walrus the rules for close approach! We were cautious and quiet, moving slowly along the beach. Step by step and inch by inch we advanced in a tight and concentrated group. Massed on the beach at the water’s edge, a mound of walrus napped. Occasionally a flipper would elevate from the melded forms and scratch what presumably was its own body. Another would roll or readjust a head that seemed to consist mostly of impressive elongated canine teeth. We respectfully stopped, well outside of the 100-meter range and stood and watched and waited for a glimpse of at least one well-defined form to separate itself from the rest.
The glaciers of Augustabukta (Augusta Bay) on Nordaustlandet surrounded us. Silver light illuminated the calm reflective sea where colorless fragments of ice and massive chunks of blue floated. Streams meandered through the unsorted glacial till of the outwash plain, reflecting our own colorful images superimposed on a background of snow-streaked mountainsides. Purple sandpipers probed the edges of pools and ponds totally undisturbed by our presence. Black and white snow buntings flitted between us unconcerned. Life seemed to continue as if we were of no more importance than another boulder on the beach.
But curiosity must have overcome one member of the pinniped clan. We seemed to have missed its stealthy submarine approach for suddenly it was there, just beyond the water’s edge and right at our feet. The thick knobby skin wrinkled beneath its chin as it moved its head from side to side looking with first one small dark eye and then the other. Its bristly mustache drooped above the upper lip from which two ivory tusks of smallish size protruded. Nostrils flared and closed. Its back was scarred from battles with its own kind. Some were old and some a bloody red. What did it think we were? Possibly our own collective form was just a colorful lichen splattered rock for as if we were not there at all Odobenus rosmarus proceeded to take a bath, rubbing and scratching vigorously all around! We backed slowly to our waiting Zodiacs but it evidently was not finished observing us. He or she followed and sat and waited until we had all departed from the shore.
