The Rus­si­an north pole drift ice camp Bar­nea has been an annu­al event from 2002 for a cou­ple of weeks each spring. Offi­ci­al­ly, it is main­ly for sci­ence, but it was regu­lar­ly used by north pole tou­rists and at least occa­sio­nal­ly for mili­ta­ry pur­po­ses such as in April 2016, when Che­chen spe­cial forces made a brief appearance in the air­port of Lon­gye­ar­by­en on tran­sit to Bar­neo on a Rus­si­an-led trai­ning mis­si­on.

But the main use appears to be within tou­rism: for pri­ces from 20,000 dol­lars and more, tou­rists could fly from Lon­gye­ar­by­en to Bar­neo and con­ti­nue from the­re to the north pole by heli­c­op­ter or ski.

The flight logi­stics for tou­rists used to go through Lon­gye­ar­by­en air­port, but this hub has not been available for this pur­po­se sin­ce 2018. This has led to nego­tia­ti­ons bet­ween the orga­ni­sa­ti­on behind Bar­neo, offi­ci­a­ly a Swiss com­pa­ny, and Nor­we­gi­an aut­ho­ri­ties.

Sval­bard luft­havn Lon­gyear in April, the Bar­neo-sea­son: no north pole flights from the­re.

Recent­ly the Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment con­firm­ed their nega­ti­ve ans­wer: the air­port near Lon­gye­ar­by­en is at times ope­ra­ting near its capa­ci­ty limits, and neces­sa­ry stand­by emer­gen­cy ser­vices are limi­t­ed. It comes in addi­ti­on that the extra bur­don on the local flight hand­ling capa­ci­ties did usual­ly not bene­fit the local com­mu­ni­ty as Bar­neo tou­rists would usual­ly not stay in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. The­se are among­st the main argu­ments for the Nor­we­gi­an traf­fic minis­try, accor­ding to Sval­bard­pos­ten.

The Swiss Bar­neo com­pa­ny may still take legal steps against this decis­i­on.

The Spits­ber­gen Trea­ty was signed in 1920 and it came into force in 1925. It sea­led Nor­we­gi­an sove­reig­n­ty over the Sval­bard archi­pe­la­go (the name “Sval­bard” was not used in the trea­ty) and regu­la­tes access for citi­zens of trea­ty mem­ber sta­tes.

Fre­d­rik Wedel Jarls­berg, the Nor­we­gi­an nego­tia­tor in Paris,
signed the Spits­ber­gen Trea­ty on 09th Febru­ary 1920 in Ver­sailles.

A ran­ge of count­ries have joi­n­ed the trea­ty sin­ce 1925. Until recent­ly, Lat­via and North Korea (!) had been the latest new mem­bers. Both joi­n­ed the trea­ty in 2016.

In April 2024, howe­ver, Anka­ra rati­fied their signa­tu­re under the Spits­ber­gen Trea­ty. Sin­ce then, Tur­key is the latest signa­to­ry coun­try.

This will not chan­ge much in real life: Nor­way does not make a dif­fe­rence bet­ween citi­zens of mem­ber sta­tes and tho­se from other count­ries. The­re are, for exam­p­le, more than 200 peo­p­le from Thai­land and the Phil­li­pi­nes living in Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Their respec­ti­ve count­ries of ori­gin are not mem­bers of the Spits­ber­gen trea­ty.

Tur­key appears to be inte­res­ted on a dif­fe­rent level, as the Barents Obser­ver wri­tes: recent­ly in July, a dele­ga­ti­on from Tur­key visi­ted Pyra­mi­den, a for­mer Rus­si­an coal mining sett­le­ment in Isfjord, to look at the poten­ti­al of run­ning a rese­arch faci­li­ty the­re. Rus­sia has announ­ced plans to deve­lop Pyra­mi­den as an alter­na­ti­ve to Ny-Åle­sund, whe­re a ran­ge of count­ries run rese­arch faci­li­ties under Nor­we­gi­an lea­der­ship.

Sjuøya­ne is the page of the week. This page is dedi­ca­ted to the litt­le archi­pe­la­go of ‘The Seven Islands’, which are the very nor­t­hern­most islands and islets of the Sval­bard archi­pe­la­go.

The page has exis­ted for years, but I have impro­ved it signi­fi­cant­ly now with new map, images and pho­to gal­lery and the text has also got a cou­ple of updates. When I work on the tra­vel blog, lin­king places that we just visi­ted to the­se pages, I like to make updates and impro­ve­ments as I stumb­le over older pages that need some love.

Phippsøya, the lar­ges island of Sjuøya­ne.

Sjuøya­ne have some fasci­na­ting land­scape and they are a fasci­na­ting area to visit if all works out, but it can cer­tain­ly be chal­ling to get the­re, let alo­ne to get ashore. If get­ting the­re is not available in real life, then a vir­tu­al trip the­re is just one mou­se click away 😀

The for­mer fire­drill area near Sval­bard air­port clo­se to Lon­gye­ar­by­en has been a mat­ter of con­flict for years. The area is con­ta­mi­na­ted with “per- and poly­fluo­ro­al­kyl sub­s­tances” or short PFAS, which come as part of fire extin­gu­is­hing foam which was used in lar­ge quan­ti­ties on the fire­drill area over years. PFAS is harmful to both health and envi­ron­ment and it is hard­ly bro­ken own under natu­ral con­di­ti­ons. Hence, once released it stays in the envi­ron­ment for very long and it accu­mu­la­tes in the food chain.

The fire­drill area in ques­ti­on was aban­do­ned 24 years ago, but PFAS con­cenc­tra­ti­on levels in the soil are still high. Some of the con­ta­mi­na­ted soil was remo­ved in 2023, but more remains and fur­ther clean-up has been mat­ter of legal and public dis­pu­te for a long time. Avi­nor, the Nor­we­gi­an com­pa­ny that runs the air­port (and other ones in Nor­way), argued that effort and cos­ts are too high. But now, the Nor­we­gi­an minis­try for cli­ma­te and envi­ron­ment has deci­ded that the clean-up must be com­ple­ted.

Part of the con­ta­mi­na­ted soil near the hor­se riding cent­re clo­se to Lon­gye­ar­by­en air­port was remo­ved in August 2023.

Avi­nor has bud­get­ed 25 mil­li­on kro­ner (about 2.1 mil­li­on Euro) for the cle­a­nup pro­ject. Work is sche­du­led to start in August, accor­ding to Sval­bard­pos­ten.

Jørn Dyb­dahl, for­mer owner of the hor­se riding cent­re clo­se to Lon­gye­ar­by­en air­port, died in 2023 from can­cer. Dyb­dahl hims­elf suspec­ted the PFAS con­ta­mi­na­ti­on to be the reason for his fatal ill­ness.

Two gui­des of a French ship each got a fine of 20,000 kro­ner (about 1750 Euro) for having dis­tur­bed polar bears. The inci­dent hap­pen­ed on 23rd June in Mos­sel­buk­ta in north Spits­ber­gen. Two polar bears, a mother with her cub, were eating on a dead wha­le. The gui­des dro­ve Zodiacs with pas­sen­gers towards the bears in a way that cau­sed them to move away from the wha­le car­cass, accor­ding to a press release by the Sys­sel­mes­ter.

Polar bears enjoy­ing a wha­le car­cass (archi­ve image, Hin­lo­pen Strait 2023).

Accor­ding to § 30 of the Sval­bard envi­ron­men­tal law (Sval­bard mil­jø­l­ov), „it is for­bidden to lure, to feed, to fol­low polar bears or to take any other action that may lead to dis­tur­ban­ce or dan­ger for peo­p­le or the polar bear(s)” (author’s trans­la­ti­on).

The­re will be new rules from 2025. Then, a mini­mum distance of 500 met­res (until 30 June) respec­tively 300 met­res (from 1st July) will be requi­red by law.