The Great White Bear

by Kieran Mulvaney

  It is the Arctic Sunrise.

  It had left Amsterdam two and a half weeks previously, and when its latest expedition had been conceived, there was no certainty it would be able to reach its destination, no guarantee that the Sunrise would be able to penetrate the southernmost ice barrier, or that, were it successful in that goal, it could successfully navigate the ice that would surely be scattered about the strait. But during the winter, ice had never fully consolidated, and by the time the Sunrise arrived, nary an ice floe was to be seen.

  So the little ship sailed north, at no stage impeded by or even in sight of ice, until, 300 miles later, it had finally traveled as far north as it could. It had traversed the Nares Strait from south to north, the first ship ever to do so in June, but the pride in priority was countered on board by awareness of the possible ramifications. One swallow does not a summer make, but it was the second time in three years that winter ice in the Nares Strait had failed to consolidate fully. On the previous occasion, in 2007, a constant torrent of floes from the Lincoln Sea had flushed through from north to south all summer, but on this occasion, the ice bridge in Robeson Channel had held fast, and it was here, finally, that the Arctic Sunrise found its northward progress halted.

  Ahead stretched nothing but the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean, 450 miles separating the Sunrise from the North Pole. There was need for caution: once the ice began to fracture and flood the strait, the Sunrise would have to flee or, at least, take shelter. A helicopter survey showed that, for now at least, the bridge was holding steady; from the air, too, there were abundant signs of the productivity of the ice edge, pathways in the snow where seals had slid into the water and, crisscrossing the ice like the feverish scribbling of a demented mapmaker, pathway after pathway of polar bear tracks, emerging from the distance, converging on the edge of the fast ice and patrolling its length, heading to breathing holes, crossing over pressure ridges, circling back and around, and eventually disappearing again.

  And then, the crew of the Sunrise scarcely having had time to acknowledge their surroundings and finish breakfast, one of the bears appeared, carefully walking in the same prints that either it or another had left earlier and heading curiously toward the strange interloper into its world. For those who had been on board the ship in similar surroundings before, it was an omen: the first polar bear of the expedition, appearing on the first morning at the destination. Being the first, its every move was met with a cacophony of beeps and clicks as two dozen camera shutters fired off in rapid and ongoing succession.

  The bear seemed fat and healthy, confirmation that the ship had entered productive hunting grounds, but for a good half-hour it appeared interested less in hunting than in examining the strange green iceberg that had appeared as if by magic. It sniffed the new smells the iceberg had brought with it; it examined the objects that strolled around on top and emitted peculiar noises. Occasionally, it wandered off to examine the edge of the ice, peering over the edge as if at its own reflection in the water and then looking back over its shoulder and baring its teeth as if the presence of the green iceberg, no longer a novelty, was now a source of confusion or displeasure.

  For sixteen days the ship remained near the northern end of the strait, stationed alongside a glacier that the team of onboard scientists studied daily and intently, measuring movement and melt and the temperature of the water that lapped at its head until, eventually, the ice bridge broke. The Arctic Ocean displaced the Arctic Sunrise, its floes assuming their rightful place in the Nares Strait, their looming presence enough to prompt the ship's departure.

  It would be a staged retreat; the ship would stay ahead of the ice and then, as if pressing itself in a doorway to avoid the passage of slow-moving Pamplona bulls, tuck itself into Kane Basin a while until it could stay no longer. And it was there, on a bright, sunlit Arctic night, that scientists and crew set off on a short boat ride to investigate an iceberg of exceptional beauty, nicknamed by those on board the "doughnut berg" for the almost perfect arch that it formed. Unlike many other icebergs, this was likely not a function of years of weathering but a feature with which it was created, the result of a channel in the glacier from which it calved.

  The boat returned to the ship to pick up a photographer to examine the berg more closely, but as it neared its destination, the cry went out from above that a polar bear was approaching, at full speed. Vulnerable in their small craft, the boat crew fought their way through chunks of ice to reach the sanctuary of the pilot door and clamber onto the Sunrise; their safety assured, the mood of all on board shifted from anxiety to the relaxed confidence afforded by the protection of an icebreaker.

  The bear approached, wading knee-deep through a melt pool in the ice, striding confidently toward the bow. It sniffed the air, looked up at those looking down, and for an instant appeared to crouch, as if measuring the distance and preparing to spring upward. Even from the safety of the bridge wing, thirty feet above its head, the bear's seemingly predatory focus unnerved. The bear completed its calculus and, having satisfied itself that any leap would fall short of its goal and be energy unnecessarily expended, snapped back to reality until, startled by the knock of a tripod leg against the steel hull, it whipped round and splashed into the water.

  Hauling itself onto a slightly more distant piece of ice, it rocked back onto its haunches and, its back now ramrod-straight, pointed its nose straight up toward the bright blue sky. It looked as if it could be about to howl at the midnight sun or was perhaps adopting a pose of yogic meditation instead of, as was in fact the case, gaining maximum elevation to assess the scents that wafted from the ship. It dropped its forepaws to the ice once more and, without warning, rolled onto its back in the snow, shifting its rump back and forth as its massive paws waved harmlessly in the air. It was likely cooling off after its exertions, but to those on board the Arctic Sunrise, what had just minutes ago been a cause of concern and rapid disembarkation now appeared as threatening as an oversized family pet.

  Returning to its feet, it took a second to regain its composure before wandering off across the ice. And then, in an instant, it reverted to its previous mode. A dark lump in the distance revealed itself through binoculars to be a seal, seemingly asleep on the floe; the bear flattened itself against the ice and crawled stealthily and circuitously toward its prey. Whether alerted to the bear's presence or simply determining it was time to move, the seal slipped swiftly into the water and away. The bear walked up to the edge of the ice floe, sniffed the air, and, with the ursine equivalent of a mildly disappointed shrug of the shoulders, continued its wandering, until it was out of sight.

  There was a rumble as the Arctic stillness was broken by the sound of the ship's engines starting.

  The ice was encroaching.

  It was time to leave.

  The ship turned around and began to steam south, the Nares Strait and its polar bears slowly receding into the distance.

  Notes

  page BECOMING

  [>] "a superabundance": Ian Stirling, Polar Bears, p. 84.

  [>] "Historically ... to den on": Steven Amstrup, conversation with the author, March 9, 2009.

  [>] "interconnecting tunnels": Thomas'S. Smith, comments on draft manuscript.

  "may not be a ventilation shaft": Ibid.

  [>] "severity"; "tall, jagged": Nikita Ovsyanikov, Polar Bears, p. 96.

  [>] "hissed so loudly": Ibid., p. 99.

  [>] "I think ... against the far wall": Richard Harington, conversation with the author, August 16, 2008.

  "I remember": Ibid.

  [>] "I was with Tam Eeolik": Ibid.

  "In the course of that ... at home or not": Geoff York, conversation with the author and others, Tundra Buggy Lodge, October 31, 2008.

  "We shouted and hollered ... like a turtle": Ibid.

  "She saw me ... she took off": Ibid.

  [>] "A human could never ...have no problem": Thomas'S. Smith, comments on draft manuscript.

  [>] "During the months ... yo
u keep at it": Mike Spence, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.

  [>] "I would not have been able": Thorsten Milse, Little Polar Bears, p. 59.

  [>] "rather inconsiderately"; "became aware"; "a bear's face": Hugh Miles and Mike Salisbury, Kingdom of the Ice Bear, p. 44.

  "was greeted"; "The female fussed"; "the female emerged": Ibid., p. 47.

  [>] "in the realm of the seal": Ibid., p. 48.

  "When the moment finally arrives": Milse, Little Polar Bears, p. 19.

  "Once she comes out ... off she'll go": Mike Spence, conversation with the author, October 26, 2008.

  [>] "will spend mere minutes": Thomas'S. Smith, comments on draft manuscript.

  "I'm convinced ... off they go": Ibid.

  [>] "If there are seven documented instances": Stirling, Polar Bears, p. 137.

  BEAR

  [>] "beyond the north wind"; "Illnesses cannot touch them ... this exalted race": Kieran Mulvaney, At the Ends of the Earth, p. 1.

  [>] "gigantic": Steven C. Amstrup, "Polar Bear: Ursus maritimus," in Wild Mammals of North America, p. 591.

  [>] "If a grizzly ... pull it back out": JoAnne Simerson, San Diego Zoo, conversation with the author, December 15, 2008.

  [>] "To test the idea ... made by its breath!": Stirling, Polar Bears, p. 144.

  [>] "Typically ... in the water": JoAnne Simerson, conversation with the author, December 15, 2008.

  "They're like snowshoes": Ibid.

  [>] "Warm surfaces ... inside the pelt": David Lavigne, International Fund for Animal Welfare, conversation with the author, December 11, 2008.

  [>] "a miniature light pipe": Richard C. Davids, Lords of the Arctic, p. 25.

  "We discovered...'Black Polar Bears'": David Lavigne, conversation with the author, December 11, 2008.

  [>] "Now the ultraviolet... absorbed by the hair": Ibid.

  [>] "of a monstrous bigness": Richard Hakluyt, Voyages in Search of the NorthWest Passage, retrieved online from http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h7hakluyt/northwest/chapter7.html.

  ICE

  [>] "many of our company": Robert McGhee, The Last Imaginary Place (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005) p. 158.

  [>] "terrifyingly like": Mariana Gosnell, Ice, p. 181.

  "most fearfull both to see and heare": Gerrit de Veer, A True and Perfect Description of Three Voyages (1609) (Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1993) p. 101.

  "Driven by the power of winds ... against such a force": McGhee, The Last Imaginary Place, p. 137.

  [>] "It's like a wonderful time-lapse version ... It's pretty intense": Brendan P. Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008.

  "For me": Eric Larsen, conversation with the author, November 11, 2008.

  "There are pieces of ice ... It's always changing": Ibid.

  [>] "We had a bear ... in less than a minute": Ibid.

  [>] "like a lunar landscape": Brendan Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008.

  [>] "I've seen bears ... they don't like being near them": Ibid. "mostly for their sing-song linkage"

  [>] "a circus"; "They whistle": Ibid.

  Natalie Angier, "Who Is the Walrus?" New York Times, May 20, 2008.

  "The call came ... it was wild": Brendan Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008.

  [>] "are always in battle": Erik W. Born, The Walrus in Greenland, p. 4.

  [>] "A polar bear had swum too close": Erik W. Born, The White Bears of Greenland, p. 31.

  "were on a ship": Brendan Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008.

  [>] "If you go ... right out of the water": Ibid.

  [>] "When the first molecule-thick ... nose out to breathe": Ibid.

  [>] "If you put your head ... a little chapel": Ibid.

  LIFE

  [>] "virtually immortal": Stirling, Polar Bears, p. 139.

  [>] "When such groups ... madly in the air": Brendan Kelly, comments on draft manuscript.

  [>] "that only the tip ... after its prey": Stirling, Polar Bears, p. 116.

  [>] "I was amazed ... concious memory": Ibid., p. 117.

  [>] "A lair might be a meter": Brendan Kelly, conversation with the author, November 13, 2008.

  [>] "Before the bear ... of the blow": Born, The White Bears of Greenland, p. 43.

  [>] "What happened next": Davids, Lords of the Arctic, pp. 67—68.

  [>] "Yesterday I watched": Charles Feazel, White Bear, pp. 2—3.

  "I often find": Brendan Kelly, comments on draft manuscript.

  [>] "seen them back up": Davids, Lords of the Arctic, p. 3.

  [>] "The value of this alternate food": Amstrup, "Polar Bear: Ursus maritimus," p. 592.

  "it is essentially": Geoff York, comments on draft manuscript.

  [>] "Imagine ... a treadmill": Ibid.

  "Rear rudders of U.S. submarines": Andrew Chang, "Polar Bear Attacks U.S. Submarine," ABC News, May 30, 2003.

  "I can't even imagine that ... Unreal": Eric Larsen, conversation with the author, November 11, 2008.

  [>] "absolutely desolate"; "we saw fox tracks"; "never saw a fox": Bruce Weber, "Riding Bombardier snowmobiles, he was the first to reach the North Pole," Globe and Mail, October 22, 2008, p. R5.

  [>] "far from sight": Stirling, Polar Bears, p. 67.

  [>] "Polar bears used to be considered": Davids, Lords of the Arctic, p. 68.

  "a solitary ice wanderer": Ovsyanikov, Polar Bears, p. 90.

  [>] "It isn't that polar bears": Geoff York, comments on draft manuscript.

  "In fact ... simple tolerance": Ovsyanikov, Polar Bears, p. 81.

  [>] "only a few experienced animals": Ibid., p. 66.

  "jumped down the small cliff": Ibid., p. 65.

  "In the ensuing panic ... to defend it": Ibid., p. 66.

  [>] "It is quite possible ... getting a meal": Ibid.

  [>] "I have seen": Geoff York, comments on draft manuscript.

  ENCOUNTERS

  [>] "Bears, the hunters kept telling him": Davids, Lords of the Arctic, p. 74.

  [>] "If you track a bear ... deeper and wider": Darren Keith et al., Inuit Knowledge of Polar Bears, p. 94.

  "The heel will dig ... the heel bone": Ibid.

  "If you are ... at some point": Ibid., p. 118.

  [>] "I have seen ... when it came out": Ibid., p. 112.

  "Before ... and got stuck": Ibid., p. 113.

  [>] "Recently ... the scientific literature": Richard Monastersky, "International Polar Year: The social pole?" Nature 457, no. 1078 (February 25, 2009).

  [>] "Arctic and Subarctic societies": Hugh Brody, Living Arctic: Hunters of the Canadian North (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1987), p. 37.

  "Europeans, with their agricultural heritage": Ibid., p. 43.

  "Only the very strongest": Jeannette Mirsky, To the Arctic!: The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), p. 9.

  [>] "[B]ut our master": de Veer, A True and Perfect Description of Three Voyages, p. 169.

  "We leavelled at her": Ibid., pp. 154–55.

  [>] "Her death": Ibid., p. 183.

  [>] "A great leane": Ibid., pp. 62–63.

  [>] "perceiving them": Ibid., p. 63.

  "Our men are already dead": Ibid.

  "making a great noyse": Ibid., p. 64.

  [>] "This fierce tyrant"; "This bear"; "The annals of the north": Anonymous, The Mariner's Chronicle (New Haven: George W. Gorton, 1835), p. 415.

  [>] "a race": Roald Amundsen, My Life as an Explorer (New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1928), p. 86.

  "I had always heard": Ibid., p. 88.

  [>] "If the bear is hunting": Stirling, Polar Bears, p. 117.

  "I honestly think ... well blended in": Eric Larsen, conversation with the author, November 11, 2008.

  [>] "When the stove ... into the tent": Ibid.

  [>] "He showed no signs": Ovsyanikov, Polar Bears, p. 53.

  "And then this giant ... terribly frigh
tened": Ibid.

  "One time ... crawled back out": Robert Buchanan, conversation with the author, December 22, 2008.

  [>] "there's just not that much": Ibid.

  [>] "The ones ... deep doo-doo": Ibid.

  "A typical encounter ... so suddenly": Stephen Herrero, conversation with the author, October 27, 2009.

  "thin"; "skinny": Stephen Herrero and Susan Fleck, "Injury to people inflicted by black, grizzly or polar bears," p. 31.

  [>] "Bears are curious ... improving your safety": Stephen Herrero, conversation with the author, October 27, 2009.

  "support the conclusion": Herrero and Fleck, "Injury to people inflicted by black, grizzly or polar bears," p. 31.

  "People talk about ... piss-poor job of it": Thomas'S. Smith, conversation with the author, October 31, 2008.

  "at least 251": Herrero and Fleck, "Injury to people inflicted by black, grizzly or polar bears," p. 31.

  [>] "Europeans took to ... arctic journey": Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams, p. 111.

  "white bears of a monstrous bigness"; "being desirous"; "whereupon": Hakluyt, Voyages in Search of the North- West Passage.

  "laid her paws"; "with signs": Lopez, Arctic Dreams, p. 112.

  "though at first": William Scoresby, An Account of the Arctic Regions, vol. I (Newton Abbot, England: David & Charles Reprints, 1969), p. 522.

  [>] "he yielded": Ibid., p. 523.

  [>] "one of the finest": Davids, Lords of the Arctic, p. 101.

  "The polar bear": Ibid.

  [>] "I am informed": Ibid.

  "an international conference": Thor'S. Larsen and Ian Stirling, The Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears—Its History and Future, p. 5. 135 "scientific knowledge"; "take such steps"; "conduct": Ibid. "with a view": Ibid.

  [>] "The taking ... be prohibited": International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears and Their Habitat, Article I, Paragraph 1.