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G12: Arctic Expedition－A Frozen Summer

January 19, 2015

G12: Arctic Expedition－A Frozen Summer

This summer I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in an artic expedition group led by Professor Shuyi Zhang from East China Normal University. On the morning of July 19th, a group of 38 students from all over China gathered at Pudong International Airport, bound for Stockholm, a beautiful city in Sweden.

Our arctic expedition started on July 22th when we arrived Longyearbyen, Svalbard, and boarded the Akademik Sergey Vavilov, an expedition vessel from Russia. Once the ship had moved off from the dock, we were heading into the grand and mysterious arctic land. On the deck, the only things we saw were huge mountain chains, gray plain sky and the boundless ocean. I could feel the severe coldness in the air with each breath.

Every day we went out on Zodiacs, small ten person boats, wearing technical jackets, outdoor pants, high boots, waterproof gloves and sunglasses, the Zodiacs allowed us to see a great variety of Artic animals. Arctic Terns, Glaucous Gulls, Bearded seals and Reindeers, animals I have never seen were moving just in front of us. And we were lucky to see four polar bears during the expedition. For safety reasons, we could not get too close to these large carnivores. One time, we saw a bear swimming in the sea searching for fish. It was a good swimmer, so we were worried that it would suddenly rush to our boat and drag one of us down. Another time, a bear was eating a dolphin with a group of gulls flying around it and waiting it to finish. The sharp red color of the blood stained its snow-white fur. It reminded us to be respectful of this animal.

Sometimes we went on the land. The crewmembers are all experienced Artic explorers and scientists. They told us a lot about the bizarre plants that we encountered during our walk. All the plants were low on the surface of the land to protect themselves from the severe weather. The crewmembers put great effort in protecting the environment. We were always supervised so as not to leave any human traces. Sadly, even this land is being desecrated by Man, and every one of us has the responsibility to protect it. On July 26th,our ship arrived 80 degrees north and we had a great party on the deck to celebrate our adventure.

Mountains and glaciers have been standing in the Arctic for centuries, witnessing the rises and falls of the mundane world. Despite the environmental extremes, life still exists there, growing and reproducing.

This journey was undoubtedly one of the most meaningful experiences in my life.

(Written & Picture by Michelle Wang of Class 12(9)Supervised by Kaicheng Ma)