Ivory Gull perched above seal meat, originally uploaded by Dave Walsh Photography.
Ivory gull, pagophila eburnea, perched above a rack of dried seal meat at the dog yard, Ny-Alesund, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway. Populations are currently in decline throughout the Arctic, possibly because of decreasing sea ice, and the PCBs and DDE found in the food they eat, for instance seal carrion from polar bear kills.
Writer, photographer, environmental campaigner and "known troublemaker" Dave Walsh is the founder of Blather.net, described both as "possibly the most arrogant and depraved website to be found either side of the majestic Shannon River", and "the nicest website circulating in Ireland". Half Irishman, half-bicycle. He lives in southern Irish city of Barcelona.