Where whales, puffins and icebergs jostle for your attention

At Twillingate, I teamed up with Mr. Boyd, who pilots a 28-foot, 12-passenger aluminum boat called the Silver Bullet, which he deftly maneuvered close enough for us to see the turquoise underbelly of a tabular iceberg. The white mass above the water was laced with lines of a rich royal blue, which were essentially narrow channels cut by melting water. (Similar channels in some algae-heavy icebergs make them look like giant green-streaked mints to the whole world, but most have blue hues.)

By the way, here’s the best place to put the caveat that what I saw is just – and I’m sorry I don’t have a more creative way to put it, that’s why I’ve been waiting – the tip of the icebergs.

Typically, what you and I see of a given iceberg above the water’s surface is only 10 to 12 percent of its total mass, explained Stephen E. Bruneau, an ice expert at Newfoundland’s Memorial University and author of the super-definitive book, “A Field Guide to icebergs of Newfoundland and Labrador.”

Mr Bruneau has advised companies on how to lasso and tow icebergs, usually to avoid hitting oil rigs or fishing equipment. He also receives a few calls each year from people wanting to know if they can solve chronic freshwater shortages by towing giant icebergs to, say, Saudi Arabia or Southern California.

“That’s crazy – it makes absolutely no economic sense to do that,” Mr. Bruneau told me. “I mean, in theory it could be possible. But the cost of fuel alone could pay for a desalination plant.”

The other question Mr. Bruneau gets a lot more often is how climate change and warmer global temperatures will affect the icebergs in Iceberg Alley. This turns out to be quite a complicated issue, with so many factors at work in any given year that no one really knows the answer. Higher temperatures could create more and bigger icebergs, but also accelerate the rate of their melting, he explained.