Bearded Seals are often found hauling out on small icebergs in front of glaciers. Always ready to jump into the water when a Polar Bear approaches they are surprisingly tame when a boat approaches (if done properly). This often gives nice photo opportunities, especially when you’re on a small, low boat as the Noorderlicht.

In this case we found one right at dinner time, so that had to wait a little. Wildlife has priority over food of course. We managed to get nice and close to this one and when looking at the images (after dinner) we noticed his face was quite reddish brown. This is kind of typical for Bearded Seals in Kongsfjord (where this picture was taking) due to the large amount of red sediment that runs from the several glaciers in the fjord into the water. As the seals swim in the water they often pick up some of the sediment, which gives them the typical red face.