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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Karen McVeigh

Ice dives, walrus snaps and whale encounters: the man telling extreme stories of an Arctic at risk

A man in a wetsuit emerges head and shoulders from the ice holding a camera
Andreas Heide breaking ice following a freedive in Trollfjorden, northern Norway in January 2020. Photograph: Sophie Bolesworth/barba

To say the images of Andreas B. Heide during his working day are dramatic is an understatement: a freediver deep underwater in a black wetsuit, his lean silhouette enhanced by powerful bladed fins, looking up towards a group of orcas; or standing on an ice sheet next to a small sailboat in the Arctic, amid a sea full of dangerous looking ice floes in poor visibility.

But for the marine biologist and adventurer, plunging into freezing waters with orcas or embarking on a 4,500-mile sailing expedition from the Arctic north to the UK and back, documenting whale behaviour and their dramatic encounters with polar bears, whales and walruses, is all part and parcel of storytelling that he hopes can ultimately change human behaviour. He works with scientists and conservationists, photographers and drone pilots, to underline the importance of conservation in the extreme north, under challenging conditions.

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