Never mind, I found another interesting tv reality series that enlightened me to the life of an iceberg.
Did you know that there were Iceberg Hunters?? You didn't??? Me either!!
Iceberg Hunters is a show about a family of three men, Whyman, Dale, and Travis Richards, a brothers-and-son team who travel through the deadly "Iceberg Alley," the most densely packed concentration of icebergs in the world situated off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, seeking portions of icebergs to sell to water bottling companies.
They face many hardships out on the open seas in their search to harvest ice for the production of pure bottled water and vodka.
Every spring, thousands of skyscraper-sized icebergs are released from the Arctic circle. These flow into the North Atlantic Ocean where strong currents push them towards the coast of Newfoundland. Most boat captains avoid these treacherous waters, but not the Iceberg Hunters.
From May through August, these men go out to wrangle these huge icebergs to satisfy the discriminating palates of folks who drink purer than pure water (no spring water here).
A bottle of iceberg water melted from glacial ice frozen thousands of years ago can cost from ten dollars and up. It's supposed to be free of minerals, pollutants, and so pristine that it has absolutely no taste.
I've just read that Sipping Iceberg Water is Like Drinking Air.
See Wall Street Journal article here and another article here.
Plying the dangerous waters until they spot a suitable "berg," they fire their rifles in hopes of breaking off half-ton "bergy bits" that they can sell to the water bottling plants.
This is dangerous work for the crew and their hand built 38-foot boat where rough seas, fog, or hitting one of the same icebergs can play a part.
The profits aren't incredibly huge. A boat load of ice can fetch between $1,500 to $1,800, and with about 3 loads per day, it's no huge payout. A great risk to life....why do it even?
Their passion and love for what they do is the answer it seems.
Whyman (54yr old captain) and Dale (brother) are really crab fishermen who built their boat "Cape Richards" by hand.
Travis is Whyman's eldest son, and together the three make it work for them.
A saying they all love...
"It's a Good day for Huntin' Bergs."
Two interesting links about the iceberg bottled water here and here.
Here is the link for the show.
It does irritate me when Google manages to make a comment disappear especially when it is one I've put some time into. I can rarely remember it as well as I first wrote it. I this case I thought the post was fascinating. However I doubted whether the ice was really as pure as they say. Eons ago the rain that formed into ice may not have been as polluted as it is today but it will have often had contaminants in the form of minerals etc which came from volcanic eruptions etc. I suspect that it would be just as pure if it was filtered properly or, even better, distilled but it would not have the same marketing caché of course.
ReplyDeleteGoogle, Blogger and Firefox have been acting up a bit recently, especially Blogger.
ReplyDeleteThe amazing thing for me was that I had tried some of the famous bottled water while out to dinner with friends previously and had no idea that it was such a high-end product. My favourite Perrier or Pellegrino were not available at the restaurant, and that's how we ended up with the iceberg water....little did I know then.
I don't recall it being like drinking air that's for sure.
I somehow thought that the icebergs would have contained minerals, and did wonder about that as well.
Who knew?! Now, where do you think one would try said Iceberg water!
ReplyDeleteYou have quite a wide choice actually. To name a few:
DeleteGlace - Rare Iceberg Water
Berg
Qanik - Pure Iceberg Water
The bottles are exquisitely designed.
I have added two more links at the bottom of the post for more info on the actual bottled waters.
Thanks for your query Linda!!