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| Devon Island in red |
We spent the afternoon floating around Devon island - well not all the way around as it’s Canada’s sixth largest island and the largest uninhabited island in the world. Again my eyes were popping out of my head, it’s such a stunning place and the weather was heavenly - icy but sunny and crystal clear, the sea a mirror. [Note for those rock enthusiasts among you. The bedrock is Precambrian gneiss and Paleozoic siltstone and shales. Sorry but the colour and strata were fascinating - to me.]. The island is crowned at its eastern end by an ice cap over 800m thick. We spent what seemed like hours cruising past a huge glacier which drains that ice cap. It was breathtaking. Enjoy the ride!
As we cruised we could see down into the water. Flip flopping around not far from the surface were Sea Butterflies (swimming sea snails) and Sea Angels (swimming sea slugs). I also saw two different species of jellyfish; the water around glaciers is rich with nutrients.
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| L: The ctenophore I photographed (iPhone) from the zodiac. I believe it is a Boroe forskalii (R) |
Floating close to the surface was this ctenophore I photographed from the zodiac. Not a brilliant pic but if you close one eye and squint with the other you may see its resemblance to the
Boroe forskalii (seen on the right which was of course through a microscope in favourable lighting). Not only are these beautiful creatures carnivorous, they are hermaphrodites.
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| This lovely creature is a Sea Butterfly (not my pic) |
It was a stunning day but we paid for it later with achy joints - zodiac ‘cruising’ is more active than you would imagine - not to mention the morning ‘hill exercise’ and poor Lindsay took a little tumble on the stairs. Polar expeditions are not for sissies and we do pretty well!
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