Svalbard: Lillihookbreen Glacier – Zodiac Cruising
Lilliehookbreen Glacier is a glacier that is 22km long and 11km wide, making it the widest glacier in Svalbard. in 1906, Duke Albert I of Monaco sailed here and chartered the fjord and photographed the glacier. Exactly a hundred years later, his great-grandson Duke Albert II of Monaco came here again and took the same photos – now showing the glacier has retreated 40% in 100 years! Cruising in small zodiacs we got to within to almost arms length of the massive glacier wall (well, not really , but very close), and you could hear the glacier cracking and calving. The meltwaters coming from the massive Lilliehookbreen glacier are full of nutrients and attract various simple crustaceans and fish that in turn draw in various birds, often in hundreds if not thousands. Plenty of Arctic specialist birds here – Black Guillemots, Brunnichs Guillemots, Northern Fulmars, Glaucous Gulls, and a pair of nesting Great Skuas
