We ended our Smeerenburg visit with a zodiac cruise in search of the Polar bear that had been seen in the area and had left paw prints on the beach. Conditions were a bit cold and windy as a weather system was approaching and we were on a schedule to try and run ahead of it. We located the minimal remains of the scavenged walrus carcass but saw no sign of the bear.

On our way back to the Polar Front our guides got a call from another ship that has arrived and had located the bear resting on a patch of snow. Spinning around we headed back toward shore and found the bear.

Photographing from a bouncing zodiac with a telephoto lens while trying to watch a bear for some action is challenging. Fortunately the bear raised it’s head from the collapsed sleeping pose shown at the head of the blog and allowed a couple of more interesting images.

Having snagged our bonus Polar bear we made it back to ship for a meal and advice to take seasickness meds and spend the afternoon at rest as we ran south with a following storm expected.

Photos with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 VR S with 1.4x teleconverter