The next major stop was Bear Island, an Arctic island roughly 250 miles north of the tip of Norway. The island was called Bear Island when the explorers who first found it spotted a bear nearby, but it is no longer home to any bears. Instead, it is home to over a million birds including puffins, murres, kittiwakes, and auks.
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These birds nest on the steep cliffs to avoid the other main inhabitants of bear island… the Arctic foxes. These foxes live off of bird eggs and their babies. In the waters and sky around the island, you will also find thousands and thousands of birds. They fill the sky like swarms of gnats and sing a chaotic but beautiful mix of sounds.
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We also saw the wreck of a Russian Cargo ship, the MS Petrozavodsk. This wreck has been broken up by the harsh waves of Bear Island for over ten years.
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Near the end our Zodiac excursion, we managed to find a small colony of Puffins. With more birds (like the auk) being driven further north, the Puffin populations will likely continue to decrease at Bear Island.
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