Ends of the Earth: Exploring the Remote and Fragile Polar Ecosystems
Paul Nicklen
National Geographic Magazine
Leopard Seals For centuries, Leopard Seals have had a fierce reputation. From the turn of the 20th century when Shackleton documented leopard seals trying to pick off his men to today when there are regular reports of seals puncturing inflatable boats with their razor-sharp teeth. In movies such as March of Penguins, Happy Feet and Eighty Below, the Leopard Seal is typecast as the villain. And in 2003, the worst possible incident occurred when a British scientist was tragically attacked and drowned by a leopard seal, while conducting underwater research. Was this an isolated incident or are leopard seals really out to attack humans? As a wildlife journalist, I have always believed that animals are judged at their worst possible moment. To investigate this claim, in February 2006 I set out with my colleague Goran Ehlme to swim with as many Leopard Seals as possible over a three-week period. After over thirty underwater encounters, I can report that I never felt in danger while in the water with these magnificent animals. In fact, one exceptionally large (four meters long and five hundred kilograms) and dominant female took a liking to me. For four straight days she tried to feed me penguins. After doing her typical threat displays where she engulfed the camera in her huge mouth, she proceeded to catch penguins and bring them to me. She offered them to me both alive and dead. I always refused her offerings and she seemed to get frustrated. After a while she put the penguins on top of my head and camera. Eventually, she tired of teaching her poor student how to hunt and eat penguins.
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Narwhals As the only animal on earth with a spiraled, ivory tusk, Narwhals are associated with the legends of the unicorn. This tusk reaches up to 10 feet (3 meters) in length. Narwhals live out their entire life cycle in a world covered with ice and because of this, they have advanced echolocation allowing them to navigate the narrow channels and leads in the ice. Unfortunately, the narwhal is heavily hunted for this prized ivory tusk. The majority of tusks are sold to the European black market. Recently there has been a dramatic decline in the population, most likely due to the sink-to-capture ratios incurred by poor hunting practices—up to five of the whales are sunk for each one that is actually captured. The intent of the story is to encourage the Canadian Government to better manage this unique and dwindling resource.
Arctic Ice Edge We now know that we are in the middle of a warming climate. For some time we debated whether global warming was real or not and exactly what was causing it. We now know that it is very real and a recent report from the UN states that 90% of global warming is caused by humans. Nowhere is warming more prevalent than at the poles. Rather than telling the public that ice is melting, I photographed this story on the Arctic to show all of the remarkable creatures that we stand to lose or that will be adversely affected if ice continues to melt and recede at such an alarming rate. For example, in the next hundred years scientists are predicting that polar bears could be extinct. Without ice, polar bears cannot hunt. If we lose ice, we will ultimately lose an entire ecosystem. An arctic without ice is like a garden without soil.
Paul Nicklen
