Herd of walruses in northern Spitsbergen, Svalbard archipelago, Norway

Walruses in Svalbard, Norway

What's the perfect thing to do under the midnight sun? If you're a walrus like the ones in today's image, the answer might be taking a quick dip with your crew, chowing down on clams and mussels and then sunbathing on a beach or ice floe. Welcome to Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean halfway between Norway and the North Pole. Photographed in the waters off Spitsbergen, the largest of the archipelago's nine islands, these aquatic mammals are year-round residents that are often found in male or female herds. Male walruses can be almost 3-metres long and weigh more than 1,179 kilograms; during mating season, they use this girth to fight among themselves for dominance over groups of females, called harems.

Other wildlife in the archipelago includes whales, dolphins, arctic foxes, reindeer and tourist favourites, polar bears. European whalers first visited Svalbard in 1611, and Norway and Russia still use the islands for coal production. Today, however, tourists also visit the islands. They come for months of summer days like today, polar nights under the aurora borealis or 'the blue hour'—twilight weeks where the landscapes are painted a magical shade of blue with accents of red and purple.