HELICOPTER ICE DIVING WITH HARP SEALS

Overview | Itinerary | Is This Trip for You? | Trip Notes

OVERVIEW

This is the first time offering this trip and we are only taking 4 to 6 adventurous divers.

For harp seals, life is defined by ice. They are never far away from ice and the annual harp seal migration is timed with ice formation and retreat. In March, 250,000 harp seals are found near the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Quebec, Canada. When a proper sea ice platform has formed, female harp seals give birth to baby seals – which for centuries have been hunted for their immaculate white pelts. Recent international attention now protects the baby harp seals and small groups of visitors can spend time amongst the harp seals on the ice surface.

Never being one to stick with the ordinary we take you one step further and dive under the ice and view the harp seals in their natural under ice environment. Crazy maybe. Cool, yes. Why? Why not!

Using helicopters departing from the Magdalen Islands, we estimate the flight with our small group of divers and equipment to take from 5 minutes up to an hour depending on the harp seals location and for the helicopter pilot to find a suitable pan of ice to land on. After landing we'll spend the first moments having an up close experience with the herd of harp seals resting on the ice surface. On the ice pans it could be possible to see up to hundreds of slumbering, rolling and barking harp seals with pure white-coated baby pups by their sides. Reactions of the seals as we approach range from seals rolling on their backs staring at us with deep brown eyes almost inviting us to give them a pet, while others scurry away and slip into a seal hole into the depths below the ice.

After marveling at one of nature's special moments, we search for a suitable lead, crack or seal hole that we may enter the waters and dive with the the rarely seen under ice world of the harp seal.

This will be the first time attempting this helicopter ice dive expedition so an adventurous exploratory spirit should be had and expect the unexpected.

Overview | Itinerary | Is This Trip for You? | Trip Notes

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