Usually, when cruising on the ocean, the landscape doesn´t differ much: waves upon waves, that might vary in their hues of blue, accompanied by skies that either grey or also blue. And even though this view might be fascinating on the first few days, when spending several weeks aboard a research vessel, seeing nothing else but oceans and the occasional whale is getting old quickly, or so I have been told.

This being my first long-term cruise, I don´t have any comparison, but in regards of scenery, our cruise certainly did not disappoint yet. Of course, when crossing the Atlantic, we, too, saw nothing but blue, but ever since reaching Greenland, every glance outside is mesmerizing. When in the fjords, we are surrounded by jagged mountains, then again slightly greenish, and the occasional glacier in between. When further out at sea, we frequently encounter ice floats, and still, it never looks the same. The dynamics of the currents and weather change everything so frequently, that it is never quite the same, but also never less breathtaking.

 Spending most of my time in the dry lab filtering water samples, I started developing something of landscape-FOMO: The fear of missing out on the beautiful landscapes visible outside. Because no matter how often I leave the lab to spend just 5 minutes outside and take in the scenery, this is something I could never get tired of.

And amidst this magical and everchanging beauty, we were indeed lucky enough to spot some fantastical beasts: starting from the puffins that accompanied us on our departure from Reykjavik, to the seals lazing around on ice floats, that greeted us when we reached the Greenland coast. The “occasional” whale turned out to be rather frequent sightings of what we believe are fin whales. Most times they just make themselves known by the blow of tiny water fountains, without showing any fins or flukes.

 So far, we have even been lucky enough to encounter several polar bears, which I have dared to dream of before, but never quite believed to be able to see one out in the wild. With climate change is threatening their current habitat, and them are facing many hardships, there is no knowing when we will see the last polar bear. So, with this in mind, I will continue to be fascinated and unable to take my eyes off, any time we encounter one of these polar beasts, and will cherish them all.

Currently, we are navigating through ice-fields in front of Sermilik fjord. Puffins have been exchanged to northern fulmars and sea gulls. The fjord we are headed into is supposedly home to another polar bear family. And while this is already quite exciting, the bears are not even the most intriguing creatures this time. It is narwhals that we are looking out for now. And not just in the touristic “oh, I really would like to see a narwhal”-sense. While this is true, and I personally would love to see a unicorn of the sea, the reason we even instated a narwhal watch patrol that is constantly active from the bridge, is that they, too, are endangered. Specifically in east Greenland, the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO) recommends that no narwhals in this area be caught at all. And to not disturb them further, we as a research cruise team are bound by specific rules as well: when within the narwhal protection zone, we may only go up to 5 knots speed. Additionally, when we do see a narwhal, any devices using hydroacoustic must be turned off, so as not to irritate them any further. So, for sciences sake, narwhals are the fantastical beasts our PI´s hope not to find.

Lisa Frankholz