18th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Watching, Polar bear on ice

As the ice rises on the swell and the Zodiak sinks into a trough, the bear on the ice seems to loom over the camera. Taken from a small Zodiak amongst ice floes in the Arctic ocean about 100 miles north of Spitzbergen. This bear still has a long swim further north to the edge of the polar pack ice during one of the worse summers recorded for arctic ice extent.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 08.2020
Date Uploaded: 11.2020
Photo Location: Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Camera: Canon EOS-1D X Mark III
Copyright: © Russell Millner