![]() ![]() They're going to die in a couple of weeks and be gone back to nature anyway," he said. "In Newfoundland, it's like a fallen leaf. "They come here and they melt so fast," noted the captain, adding that once they are floating off the coast of Newfoundland, it is a real race against the clock. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't," said Kean.Īs summer gets under way, time is of the essence in harvesting the icebergs. The air shudders with the noise and the crew hold their breath. "Even I struggle to understand them sometimes," laughs the captain, who lives in St John's, the capital of the eastern province of Newfoundland and Labrador.Īrriving at the foot of the massive wall of floating ice in Bonavista Bay, which opens into the Atlantic, he shoulders a rifle and blasts away in the hopes that some of it will break off. ![]() To kill time, the crew members swap jokes in the colorful local dialect - English with a Scottish and Irish lilt. The days are long and the "harvest" isn't easy.įor this particular prize, which he first picked up using a satellite map, Kean has to sail about 24 kilometers (15 miles). Every morning at dawn, Kean sails out with three other crew members to hunt what has become his own personal white gold: icebergs.įor more than 20 years, he has hauled in the mighty ice giants and then sold the water for a handsome profit to local companies, which then bottle it, mix it into booze or use it to make cosmetics.īusiness has soared in tandem with the warming of the planet, especially quick in the Arctic, meaning that more and more icebergs find their way south.īut it's a tough gig. ![]()
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