A lands­li­de from Pla­tå­ber­get crossed the road near the ceme­tery in Lon­gye­ar­by­en a few days ago. Nobo­dy was inju­red and the event was not seen by anyo­ne, as far as known, but the road from the old muse­um to Huset has been clo­sed by the Sys­sel­man­nen for safe­ty reasons until fur­ther noti­ce.

It is not the first lands­li­de in this area. Pre­vious events had trig­ge­red a deba­te to move the ceme­tery to a safer loca­ti­on near the church to pre­vent it from pos­si­ble dama­ge, but no decis­i­ons have been made so far.

Smal­ler lands­li­des as the recent one are gene­ral­ly a com­mon and well-known phe­no­me­non on slo­pes like the one near the ceme­tery. They may occur any­whe­re on simi­lar slo­pes in the field, espe­ci­al­ly in the ear­ly sum­mer, after the snow mel­ting peri­od. Lands­li­des of this type are nor­mal­ly not too fast, so hikers should be able to move away and into safe ter­ri­to­ry wit­hout dif­fi­cul­ties. But the dan­ger poten­ti­al has to be con­side­red for exam­p­le when put­ting up a tent, and the­re are other types of lands­li­des and mud­flows that invol­ve more water and hig­her velo­ci­ties. In June 1992, a sci­en­tist was kil­led by a tor­ren­ti­al slush ava­lan­che in Lief­defjord.

Lands­li­de in Lon­gye­ar­by­en near the ceme­tery. Image © Alex­an­der Lembke.

Less than a week after the polar bear visit to Kapp Lin­né, which made it big in inter­na­tio­nal media, ano­ther polar bear was seen near a sett­le­ment in Spits­ber­gen. This time, it was Lon­gye­ar­by­en, the main sett­le­ment.

The bear was seen for the first time Fri­day evening in Advent­da­len clo­se to the old airst­rip, some kilo­me­t­res sou­the­ast of Lon­gye­ar­by­en, wal­king to the sett­le­ment.

Soon, the Sys­sel­man­nen was on site with the heli­c­op­ter, the polar bear had alre­a­dy come quite clo­se to town. Scared away by the heli­c­op­ter, the bear moved to Hior­th­hamn, oppo­si­te of Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Later, when the bear was seen swim­ming in Advent­fjor­den, a group having a par­ty with a fire on the beach in Lon­gye­ar­by­en was evacua­ted – a safe­ty mea­su­re wit­hout any dra­ma, the bear was not seen any­whe­re near the site.

Polar bear in Advent­fjord, not far from Lon­gye­ar­by­en (archi­ve image, 2014).

The polar bear was seen for the last time Satur­day around noon on the way into Sas­senfjord. Sin­ce then, its whe­re­a­bouts are not know, and the aut­ho­ri­ties have clo­sed the “case” until fur­ther obser­va­tions may be made and repor­ted by anyo­ne in the field.

It is said that the bear was a lar­ge male. The­re were no situa­tions dan­ge­rous for humans or the bear.

The case shows how important it is to be alert and pre­pared also in the area clo­se to Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

The sum­mer­se­a­son has begun in Spits­ber­gen. After a rela­tively ear­ly snow melt, ships have arri­ved to take tou­rists into remo­te are­as, and birds have retur­ned to start their bree­ding sea­son.

The ear­ly sum­mer is a very busy time in the Arc­tic for all kinds of crea­tures, ani­mals and humans ali­ke. Both birdcliffs and the tun­dra are hum­ming with life, thou­sands of geese are now buil­ding up reser­ves after the spring migra­ti­on to get rea­dy for bree­ding, eider ducks and many other birds, tun­dra- and cliff bree­ders, to just about the same.

The Sys­sel­man­nen (gover­nor) reminds ever­y­bo­dy to exer­cise gre­at care when tra­vel­ling in the field. That is important at any time, but espe­ci­al­ly so in the ear­ly sum­mer when many birds are bree­ding. A num­ber of espe­ci­al­ly sen­si­ti­ve sites are pro­tec­ted as bird sanc­tua­ries, but birds are also res­t­ing and nes­t­ing in many other are­as, making them pro­ne to dis­tur­ban­ce during the bree­ding sea­son.

Tun­dra at Mid­ter­hu­ken: should be left alo­ne in the ear­ly sum­mer.

The Sys­sel­man­nen expli­cit­ly asks ever­y­bo­dy to avo­id traf­fic (not to land, that is) at Midterhuken/Gåsbergkilen in Bell­sund. Also other sen­si­ti­ve places should eit­her be avo­ided or visi­ted only with gre­at care to avo­id dis­tur­bing geese, ducks and other birds living and bree­ding in the tun­dra or on cliffs.

Safe and hap­py tra­vels!

A polar bear bro­ke into a buil­ding on Kapp Linné/Isfjord Radio.

The old radio sta­ti­on pro­vi­ded radio­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on bet­ween the sett­le­ments of Spits­ber­gen and the Nor­we­gi­an main­land. It was disu­s­ed when a glass fib­re cable was laid to enable much fas­ter traf­fic of much big­ger volu­mes of data. Sin­ce the late 1990s, Kapp Lin­né is used as a litt­le wild­ner­ness hotel on the west coast of Spits­ber­gen.

Curr­ent­ly the­re are 5 staff and 9 guests at Kapp Lin­né. Sun­day mor­ning around 7 a.m., the mana­ger, Malin Stark, saw that a door was bro­ken in, soon the­re­af­ter, she heard sus­pi­cious noi­ses from a sto­rage room, as Sval­bard­pos­ten reports.

Around 9 a.m., the polar bear was still insi­de the buil­ding. Sys­sel­man­nen and Nor­we­gi­an Polar Insti­tu­te have per­so­nell en rou­te to Kapp Lin­né to sca­re the bear away or to tran­qui­li­ze him. Shoo­ting the bear is the worst case sce­na­rio, which the spe­cia­lists will want to avo­ide if pos­si­ble by any means.

Polar bear on Kapp Lin­né (Isfjord Radio). Archi­ve image aut­hor.

Per­sons were, as far as known, not in imme­dia­te dan­ger. It is, howe­ver, pos­si­ble, that the bear is under stress; it may be inju­red or may­be it does not find the way out again. The polar bear is assu­med to be a lar­ge male.

Polar bear visits on Kapp Lin­né are not an ever­y­day event, but they do occur more or less regu­lar­ly. This aut­hor, who spent a winter/spring sea­son working on Kapp Lin­né when he was still very young, was also able to make such expe­ri­ence. But a bear insi­de one of the buil­dings is defi­ni­te­ly a rare event.

Adden­dum: Sun­day mor­ning near 11 a.m. the Sys­sel­man­nen infor­med that the polar bear had left Kapp Lin­né and is on the way nor­thwards.