Pack ice is a mainstay for my annual Hokkaido Photography tour as the, Steller's Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus pelagicus), use the pack-ice as a platform for their fishing grounds.   Weather always plays a huge factor and safety is priority ONE! I have experienced extreme snowstorms, snowsqualls, blizzards, thundersnow storms, and arctic bomb cyclone in Hokkaido. Trust me, you don’t want to be caught in the field during any of these naturally occurring weather events, as winds easily gust 160km/h +,  visibility is less than a meter at times. This is the reason you want to travel with an experienced outdoor adventurer as your photography workshop leader, an experienced local photo workshop leader is best, as this person will know the topography and routes in case of sudden storms.  Hokkaido’s weather is unpredictable and storms last from minutes to days.  During winter storms on the Pacific Ocean where does the Pack Ice Go?  Well I have heard my share of genius theories in Rausu while eating lunch, or having tea with my friends who make a living from fishing, harvesting seaweed,  scuba diving for sea urchin, and boat crews and captains, we have heard it all, especially from none local Hokkaido Japan photo workshops leaders, traveling half way around the world wanting to photograph the Steller’s sea eagles on pack ice. The most popular one we hear is “the pack ice is gone!” This is my cue, if in a restaurant or on dock, I turn to them and ask “ excuse me where did the pack ice go?” They answer ‘its gone.’  “WOW! I think to myself.”  I say thank you, and tell my friends in Japanese what they said about the pack ice, and we just smile, we don’t laugh, as they are not locals or seafarers, so they don’t have knowledge of pack ice behavior. 

During winter storms in Hokkaido most of the pack ice on the Pacific Coast side  does not stay afloat; it sinks below the waves and resurfaces a day or three after a storm passes.  And you do not want to be caught on a chartered vessel or an inflatable zodiac boat just after a storm photographing raptors, unless the captain of the vessel and your local Hokkaido photo workshop leader both know for certain the pack-ice has completely resurfaced after referencing satellite images and sonar from the Japan coast guard. There have been vessels that have gone out shortly after a storm due to demanding international clients, and have been caught in pack-ice jams, in some cases there have been boats stuck in the pack ice for days, until an ice breaker clears a channel.  AGAIN WHEN pack ice disappears below the waves, it is not gone, only submerged below the waterline, and some crews get ahead of themselves and think they will have safe passage only to find themselves in the middle of a pack-ice jam with no route back to port. Even with fair winds and clear skies.  Usually annually Coast Guard  Japanese air rescue by helicopter is deployed, it is time-consuming, sometimes taking a day or two to evacuate sightseers off the vessels. In my over twenty years of leading Hokkaido photo tours on pack ice to spot and photograph the Steller’s sea eagle, I have called off two such boat expeditions, and both times I made the right call as vessels, photographers, and fishermen got caught in pack-ice jams.

There is nothing like an up-close and personal encounter with the magnificent Steller's Sea Eagle on pack-ice.  During my annual group Hokkaido photo tour workshop, I have four morning booked on chartered vessel to photograph raptor.  In my over two decades leading Hokkaido birding photo tours we have never made all four outings due to rough seas, on average we make two and sometime three chartered cruises, to spot view and photograph the champion of Raptors, glacial relics that have survived not just one ice age "but several ice ages." Somehow they seem immune to the passage of time. They are such extremely rare and formidable birds of prey that they have been around since the day of the dinosaurs, representing near evolutionary perfection. With its deep, piercing voice ra-ra-ra-raurau, those who have been in their presence "in the wild" have heard the echoes of the Steller's dinosaur legacy.