By Kira Wronska Dorward/NNSL Local Journalism Initiative  05/09/2024 21:00 Passengers and crew from a cruise ship had a terrifying encounter with a polar bear on Sept. 2. The incident caused a panicked evacuation back on board the vessel while it was stopped at Alexandra Fjord on the eastern coast of Ellesmere Island. The polar bear was approaching from the nearby water at around 9:45 p.m. It “didn’t attack but came close to our landing side,” stated Lena-Marie Krause, junior port operations manager of destinations with TUI Cruises, who supervised the incident onboard the ship Hanseatic Nature. Seventy passengers and 14 employees were ashore at the time. All were back safely on board at 10:40 p.m., according to Krause. The ship, operated by German-based Hapag Lloyd, had seven polar bear monitors

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