The Russian freezing ship Petrozavodsk ran aground near the southern tip of Bear Island (Bjørnøya) on Monday, 11 May. The seas within one nautical mile from the shore are protected and may not be entered with vessels longer than 40 feet, as the cliffs are home to some of the largest seabird colonies of the north Atlantic; the numbers of breeding Brünich’s and Common guillemots amount to several hundred thousands and the breeding season is just about to begin. The Petrozavodsk is lying on a reef just under the cliffs, which frequently produce rockfalls, making removal of the wreck dangerous, if not impossible. The vessel, which was operating in the Barents sea together with Russian fishing ships, is damaged and seems to be loosing fuel, probably heavy oil, of which there seem to be about 53 tons on board.
Captain and first officer have been interviewed in Longyearbyen by the Sysselmannen and will be on trial in Norway. Both had alcohol in their blood upon arrival in Longyearbyen soon after the accident. The first mate was on watch at the time of the grounding, he was probably sleeping (really!).
The Norwegian government has given permission to exploit the oil field “Goliat” with an estimated 174 million barrels oil north of Hammerfest. Production is supposed to start in 2013 under strict environmental conditions. Goliat will be the first Norwegian oil field in the arctic Barents sea; “Snøhvit” which is already in use is solely a gas field.
Fossil fuels: future technology for the Arctic, at least according to Norwegian plans
(this is the coal power plant in Barentsburg, admittedly slightly polemical)
It has often been said that the local newspaper “Svalbardposten” might well need some competition. Finally, the American journalist Mark Sabbatini, currently based in Longyearbyen, is now publishing “Icepeople – The world’s northernmost alternative newspaper”, on the web (click here). Spitsbergen.de wishes good succes!
The Norwegian-Russian legal dispute concerning possibly illegal helicopter flights has already been mention. In April, the “Nord-Norsk Tingrett” has passed its sentence: The Russians have to pay a sentence of 50.000 Norwegian crowner. The Russians claim that article 3 of the Spitsbergen Treaty provides equal rights to citizens of all signatory nations and might appeal.
Norwegian law is in force also in Barentsburg.
Bjørn Arnestad, managing director of the Norwegian coal mining company “Store Norske Spitsbergen Kullkompani” (SNSK), has commented on the future of his company and on the Svalbard white paper of the Norwegian government that has recently been published (see below). There are enough coal reserves, including mines that do not exist yet, until 2023, but SNSK still needs to develop new business ideas for the time after 2023. Shipping services across the then most likely largely ice-free Arctic Ocean might be an option, according to Arnestad. About the white paper, he said that he is as satisfied with it as if he had written it himself, as the Norwegian governmnent puts clear emphasize on future coal mining on Spitsbergen.
The fact that there is a relationship between coal mining and climate change has obviously not had an influence on this strategical decision, although – officially – highest environmental standards are supposed to be paramount for all economic activities in Svalbard and climate change has been identified as the one major single threat to the arctic environment and ecosystems.
It seems almost ironic that the coal mining company SNSK might benefit from climate change by utilizing new shipping routes in then ice-free waters.
Coal mining: future activitity in the Arctic? (mine 7 near Longyearbyen)
Ny Ålesund has recently received a number of high-ranking political visitors. EU-commission’s vice president Günther Verheugen visited the German-French research station and the souvenir shop on 16 April. Italian’s minister of foreign affairs Franco Frattini followed on 29 April to open the new Italian “Amundsen-Nobile” climate research tower. In February and March, two Norwegian ministers, Lars Peder Brekk (agriculture and food) and Helga Pedersen (fishery and coastal affairs) had already been to the little research village at Kongsfjord.
The first tower in Ny Ålesund was built in 1926, also with significant Italian contribution.
The Norwegian government publishes a new white paper about every 10 years to define a frame for the further development of Svalbard. The latest one was issued 17 April as “Stortingsmelding No 22, 2008-2009” and underlines the future importance of coal mining and science for the local economy and development. Also tourism will be developed carefully, focussing on central areas around Longyearbyen. A watchful eye will be kept on cruise tourism in the East Svalbard nature reserves, an issue that has recently been discussed controversially. The importance of local jobs and economy is emphasized.
The Svalbardmuseum in Longyearbyen has opened a new exhibition with historial annexation signs, dating back to those days when Spitsbergen was No Man’s Land until 1925, when the Spitsbergen-Treaty came into force. Until then, everybody could easily claim a property, for example for mining purposes. Overlapping claims by many persons and companies who tried to find their fortune in the frozen ground lead to chaotic situations and to the obvious need for proper legislation and administration.
Remains of annexation sign in Ebbadalen (Billefjord).
Increased amounts of snowfall have lead to a significantly increased avalanche risk everywhere on sloping terrain in Spitsbergen. Whilst the snow mobile season is in full swing, the SAR-team of Sysselmannen and local Red Cross need to go out regularly to rescue people from avalanche areas. For one person in March, all help came too late: a local person could only be found dead under the snow masses. In another range of incidents, people got away with the shock. Great care needs to be taken during any winter travel in Spitsbergen.
The avalanche risk is significantly larger than it has been in the past. This is due to increased snowfall and thus to changing weather patterns.
Beautiful, but potentially dangerous: winter in Spitsbergen.
On the latitude of Longyearbyen, the sun is theoretically since approximately 20 February above the horizon again, at least for some mid-day minutes. But from Longyearbyen, the sun will not appear above the mountains before 08 March, an event that is traditionally given a warm welcome in shape of various cultural and social happenings from 08 to 14 March, including a number of lectures, presentations and concerts.
The last and the first sunrays of the year are a major event anywhere in the Arctic.
The Sysselmannen has stopped al commercial renting of firearms, which are needed for traveling anywhere in Svalbard outside the settlements for protection against potential polar bear attacs. According to the Sysselmannen, there is no legal base for renting out firearms. An interim solution, which might enable acknowledged weapon traders in Longyearbyen to rent firearms to persons who hold a license to own such weapons, is currently being worked on.
No step anywhere in Spitsbergen outside the settlements without a suitable firearm!
Not being able to rent one would make life quite diffiult for individual tourists.
The current discussion of keeping eastern Svalbard open for tourists or closing it largely has been described previously on this site. Now the Sysselmannen has published his recommendation for the upcoming lawgiving process. Remarkably, he has chosen not to recommend the original proposal, which suggested to close eastern Svalbard with the exception of 16 designated landing sites / areas. The Sysselmannen considers this approach too strict and not sufficiently backed up by strong arguments.
A final decision is to be made by the government in Oslo.
According to the original proposure, tourist landings in eastern Svalbard would have been restricted to the green areas. The red coastline would have been forbidden. Click here for a larger version of the map.
Long-lived environmental toxins such as PCBs, insect repellents and fireproof materials containing bromine are enriched in the arctic food chain and provide a serious enrivonmental threat to species on high trophic levels such as Ivory gulls, Glaucous gulls and Polar bears.
From 1995 to 2004, concentrations of such substances have dropped by 50 to 80 % in tissue of Ringed seals in Spitsbergen. Ringed seals are an important food source for Polar bears and commonly used for human consumption in Greenland and arctic Canada.
The decrease shows clearly that legal measures in countries that are major producers can provide significant improvements. Future challenges consist in including newly developed, but similar substances in the legal framework and in introducing such laws worldwide. Most western countries have adopted similar laws and signed international agreements (“Stockholm-convention”), but some important countries are still missing, such as the USA.
Polar bear and Ivory gull at lunch. Undesireable additives are likely to be present.
SvalSat, based on Platåberget near Longyearbyen, was installed in 1996/97 as a base station to receive data from satellites in polar orbits. The combination of good infrastructure of near-by Longyearbyen and the position close to the pole make SvalSat unique and an important link in the chain of global satellite systems. Currently, there are 16 minor and larger antennas standing on Platåberget, but the number is to be enlarged soon. Major demand is expected when the European satellite-based navigation system “Galileo” will be established in a few years, providing an alternative to the US military-controlled GPS.
The Norwegian Antarctic station Troll will serve a similar purpose in the southern hemisphere.
Antennas of SvalSat on Platåberg near Longyearbyen (photo: Michelle van Dijk).
Recenty, a surprising observation has been made in Wijdefjord (central Spitsbergen), when a polar bear killed a reindeer – so far, it has largely been assumed that polar bears eat dead or injured reindeer, but don’t hunt animals that are in good shape. This raises the question if the observed behaviour is really as rare as assumed (although this was not the very first observation of its kind) or if it is more common.
Should it turn out that polar bears are actually able to catch reindeer, then this might be an advantage for the bears in case their main habitat, the drift ice, continues to shrink due to climate change.
Polar bear on land: prefers reindeer over stones.
Source: Tommy Sandal (Austfjordnes/Wijdefjord), published in Svalbardposten