I was told all this by an old friend (and expert diver) because he was keen to entice me (just recently returned from a dive trip in the tropics) to take part in a dubious expedition somewhere far to the north and under the ice. But at the time, it seemed to me to be an extreme adventure, so I had some doubts.

Winter is long here, and I had already had my fill of warm water and colorful fish, so I listened to his authoritative comments and expert opinions and decided to test myself once again.

We had come to this remote spot a week earlier filled with both excitement and anxiety over the prospects of exploring the icy waters of the White Sea. Nestled alongside the Kola Peninsula, and straddling the Arctic Circle, the White Sea, technically part of the Barents Sea, is the only inland sea to completely freeze in the winter. Our base of operations for this ice-diving expedition was the Arctic Circle Dive Lodge, located near the seaside village of Nilma and just north of the Arctic Circle.

Located about 1200 km (800 miles) north of St. Petersburg, in the Arctic region of the far north-western part of Russia, the White Sea is an inland sea that stretches 540 km from north to south and covers approximately 91,000 square kilometres. It is an inlet of the Barents Sea. In the winter, the White Sea is covered with ice from December until April. It is a perfect place for ice diving. At Nereis Dive Center in Chupa, located on the Karelsky

During their three years here, the Dutchman organized three expeditions to search for a navigable way through the ice. They discovered new lands, charted maps, made meteorological observations, and conducted the first wintering of the Dutch team in the Arctic region. They struggled with scurvy, having lost their ship, and made a desperate attempt to get to safety on two cockboats to reach the Kola Peninsula where they met the ship, поморов. The surviving crew members came back to Amsterdam where they had long been considered dead.

The train is very comfortable and provides a rare low-stress environment where you can do nothing than chill out, perhaps stretch across your generously wide berth and read a novel while the red-star adorned locomotive pulls you steadily northbound across the endless expanses of wilderness.   

In 2006, marine biologists from St Petersburg’s department of Utrishsky Dolphins’ Aquarium decided to initiate a scientific project to build a natural farm, or nursery, for the breeding of white whales—or beluhas, as they are called in Russia—on the White Sea. One of the main aims of the project was to decrease the number of white whales caught from the wild and to exchange them with animals born in natural sea nurseries like this one.

FACTS ABOUT BELUHAS

Beluhas (Delphinapterus leucas), otherwise known as white whales, are a threatened species. Found only in the northern hemisphere, beluha whales live commonly in the coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean. They can also be found in subarctic waters. When the sea freezes over, Arctic beluhas migrate southward in large herds. Sometimes they get trapped by Arctic ice and die, becoming prey for polar bears, killer whales, and for the indigenous people of the Arctic.