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| Lilliehöökbreen |
Now, on to the
bucket list part of our trip: Svalbard (AKA, the Realm of the Polar Bear). Our visit was
through G Adventures, the same company I traveled to Africa with in 2017.
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| G Adventures G Expedition at Ingeborgfjellet |
Situated north
of mainland Europe, Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago (an archipelago is a
group of islands) in the Arctic Ocean midway between continental Norway and the
North Pole. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet and
Edgeøya.
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| Maps: Google Maps |
Administratively, the archipelago is not part of any Norwegian county, but forms an unincorporated area administered by a governor appointed by the Norwegian government. Since 2002, Svalbard's main settlement, Longyearbyen, has had an elected local government, somewhat similar to mainland municipalities.
As such, it
creates some interesting passport checkpoint situations. There is none in
Svalbard; rather you take care of that before departing from Oslo (or, I guess, any other mainland destination). When departing Svalbard, you have to go
through passport control at the first arrival destination. For us, that was no
problem since we had a direct flight to Tromsø, Norway. But, many of our tour traveling companions
had to deplane in Tromsø, claim baggage, go through a checkpoint and then re-board
to head onto Oslo.
The islands
range from 74° to 81° north latitude, making four of Svalbard’s “cities,” all
located on Spitsbergen, the top four most northerly settlements in the world.
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| Photo: Visit Svalbard |
#1 Ny-Ålesund
was founded in 1917 as a coal mining town and today serves as base for environmental
and atmospheric research.
There are no roads in or out of the settlement and tourism
access is limited to minimize impact on the scientific work. The town is owned
and operated by the Norwegian Kings Bay Company and has a winter population of
35 and a summer population of 180.
We did not visit, although we did pass by on
our ship. We saw nothing, but the proximity may account for a sudden and
fleeting return of cell service.
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| Uncredited Photo |
#2 Pyramiden has
only 4-15 residents at any time, although it once had around 1,000. Like Ny-Ålesund, it was founded as a Norwegian coal mining community.
In 1927, it was sold to the Soviet Union and today it is owned by Arktikugol, a
Russian coal mining company. Pyramiden used to have a hotel, school, community
center, farm and greenhouse, built in typical post-World War II Soviet architectural
style.
The town has the world's two most northerly Lenin statues. As of
2013, a few workers are stationed in the largely abandoned town to maintain the
infrastructure and run the hotel, which has been re-opened for tourists. We
didn’t visit here either.
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| Longyearbyen is flanked by snow-topped mountains |
#3 Longyearbyen was the jumping off point for our tour. With 2,100 residents, it is Svalbard’s largest city. Longyearbyen boasts a hospital, primary and secondary school,
university, sports center with a swimming pool, library, culture center,
movie theater, bus service, hotels, a bank, several museums, churches, cultural
facilities, an airport and public safety services.
Longyearbyen also
began as a coal mining town, although mining has been mainly discontinued and
the town has been (somewhat) transformed to an actual community. Miners based there
commute weekly to Sveagruva (or Svea) where Store Norske operates a mine.
Almost
a quarter of the town’s residents moved away in the early 2000s, presumably
because of the difficulty of life so far north.
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| Rugged Svalbard from the air, approaching Longyearbyen |
I had assumed
the name had something to do with the midnight sun or arctic location, but
Longyearbyen (pronounced Long-yur-bin) is actually named after an American
mining entrepreneur named John Longyear! The name just means “Longyear Town.”
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| Bright houses cheer up the wintery landscape in Longyearbyen |
I’ll talk about my experiences in Longyearbyen in more detail in my next post.
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| Photo: Visit Svalbard |
#4 Barentsburg
has a population of 470 and is home to Russian and Norwegian mining endeavors that
began in the 1920s. Owned by the Russian coal company, Arktikugol, it is the
only permanently inhabited Russian settlement on Svalbard. In addition to the
mining facilities, Arktikugol has opened a hotel and souvenir shop, catering
for tourists taking day trips or hikes from Longyearbyen.
The village features
facilities such as a school, library, sports center, community center, swimming
pool, farm and greenhouse. We passed by on our way out of Longyearbyen.
No roads
connect the settlements; instead snowmobiles, planes, dogsleds and boats serve
inter-community transport.
The archipelago
has an Arctic climate, although with significantly higher temperatures than other
areas at the same latitude. On our trip, it was much warmer than we expected,
even reaching into the low 50s. I never used any of my thermal underwear!
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| Zodiac trip in St. Jonsfjorden |
Plants take
advantage of the 99 days of midnight sun to compensate for the 84-day-long polar
night.
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| Arctic flowers on Bamsebu |
Svalbard is a breeding ground for many seabirds.
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| Nesting Glaucous Gull at Gnålodden |
The archipelago also features Polar
Bears, Reindeer, Arctic Foxes and a wide array of marine mammals.
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| Svalbard animals: Polar Bear, Svalbard Reindeer, Arctic Fox, Atlantic Walrus |
Seven Norwegian
National Parks and 23 nature reserves cover two-thirds of the archipelago,
protecting the largely untouched, yet fragile, natural environment.
Approximately 60 percent of the archipelago is covered with glaciers ...
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| Gnålodden |
History
Based upon Norse references to a land called Svalbarð ("cold shores"), it is believed that Norsemen discovered Svalbard as early as the 12th century. However, the Norse Svalbarð may have been the nearby Norwegian island now called Jan
Mayen or even part of eastern Greenland. At that time, Svalbard and Greenland
may have been connected to Continental Europe
The Norse probably used Svalbarð for fishing
and hunting.
While searching
for the Northern Sea Route, Dutchman Willem Barentsz “discovered” the archipelago
in 1596, although he thought it was a single island.
Barentsz named the "island" Spitsbergen, a
name that long remained in use both for the main island and for the archipelago
as a whole.
The first known
landing on Spitsbergen was in 1604, when an English ship landed at Bjørnøya to hunt walrus. Annual expeditions soon followed and Spitsbergen became
a base for hunting bowhead whale.
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| Beluga Whale bones left over from whaling |
Smeerenburg was
one of the first settlements, established by the Dutch in 1619. Smaller bases
were also built by the English, Danish and French. At first, the outposts were summer
camps, but starting in the early 1630s, a few individuals started to overwinter.
Whaling at Spitsbergen lasted until the 1820s, when the Dutch, British and
Danish whalers moved elsewhere in the Arctic.
By the late 17th century, Russian
hunters arrived to hunt land mammals
including Polar Bears and Arctic Foxes. Unlike their predecessors, they overwintered a great deal, becoming the first real permanent residents.
Russian
activity ceased by the 1820s. Norwegian hunting, mostly for Walrus, started in
the 1790s. The first Norwegian citizens to reach Spitsbergen came in 1795.
Norwegian whaling was abandoned about the same time as the Russians left, but
whaling continued around Spitsbergen until the 1830s, and around Bjørnøya, until
the 1860s.
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| A historic hut in Bamsebu |
From the 1890
through World War I, Svalbard had three main industries: Arctic tourism, coal mining
and base operations for Arctic exploration.
In 1920, the
Svalbard Treaty granted full sovereignty to Norway, but all signatory countries
were granted non-discriminatory rights to fishing, hunting and mineral
resources. In 1925, Norway renamed the archipelago Svalbard, and the main
island became Spitsbergen.
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| Barentsburg during WWII, 1941 |
In 1941, most
of Svalbard was evacuated except for a small Norwegian garrison on Spitsbergen.
Germany established a meteorological outpost on Svalbard and, in 1943, took the garrison
and destroyed Longyearbyen and Barentsburg settlements.
The German troops stationed
at the meteorological station were the last Germans to surrender after the WWII.
After the war,
Norway re-established operations at Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, while the
Soviet Union established mining in Barentsburg, Pyramiden and Grumant. In 1964,
Ny-Ålesund became a research outpost
and a facility for the European Space Research Organization. Petroleum test
drilling between 1963 and 1984 failed to yield commercially viable fields (whew!).
Regular charter flights started in 1960 and, in 1975, Svalbard Airport in
Longyearbyen opened, allowing year-round services.
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| Svalbard Airport in Longyearbyen |
During the Cold
War, the Soviet Union comprised about two-thirds of the population on the
islands (with a third being Norwegians). Russian activity has diminished
considerably since then, falling from 2,500 to 450 people. Grumant was closed
after the mines were depleted in 1962. Pyramiden was closed in 1998. Coal
exports from Barentsburg ceased in 2006 because of a fire, but resumed in 2010.
Longyearbyen remained purely a company town until 1989. In 1993, it was sold to
the national government and the University Centre was established. Through the
1990s, tourism increased and the town developed an economy independent of
mining.
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| Old – and new – equipment in Longyearbyen |
In 2016,
Svalbard had a population of 2,667, of which 423 were Russian and Ukrainian, 10
were Polish and 322 were non-Norwegians living in Norwegian settlements. The
largest non-Norwegian groups in Longyearbyen in 2005 were from Thailand,
Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Germany.
Business and Education
Longyearbyen is Svalbard's environmental tourism hub, with cruise ships generating a significant portion
of the traffic, including both stops by offshore vessels and expeditionary
cruises starting and ending in Svalbard. However, the Norwegian government
became concerned about large numbers of cruise ship passengers (quintupling
from 1991 to 2008, when there were 93,000 guest-nights) and has severely
restricted the size of ships that may visit. Out trip was on a relatively small
boat with just 115 passengers. Because of severe winter conditions, traffic is
concentrated between March and August.
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| Our ship (G Adventures G Expedition) and a Hurtigruten Ship docked in Longyearbyen |
Longyearbyen School serves ages 6-18 and is the northernmost primary/secondary school on Earth. Once pupils reach ages 16 or 17, most families move to mainland Norway. Barentsburg has its own school serving the Russian community.
Svalbard, particularly Longyearbyen and Ny-Ålesund, is the base for many arctic research projects and programs because of extraordinary access to the high Arctic. Any nation can conduct
research on Svalbard. The Polish Polar Station and Chinese
Arctic Yellow River Station, plus Russian facilities, are in Barentsburg.
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| Norwegian patrol and research ship |
The University
Centre in Svalbard in Longyearbyen offers undergraduate, graduate and
postgraduate courses to 350 students in various arctic sciences, particularly
biology, geology and geophysics. Courses are provided to supplement studies at
the mainland universities; there are no tuition fees and courses are held in English,
with Norwegian and international students equally represented.
The Svalbard
Global Seed Vault stores seeds from as many of the world's crop varieties and
their botanical wild relatives as possible. A cooperation between the
government of Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the vault is cut into
rock near Longyearbyen, keeping it at a natural 21°F and refrigerating the seeds
to 0°F. The Vault is designed to protect biodiversity in the event of a major
extinction-level catastrophe. Understandably, it is not open to the public.
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| Global Seed Vault; Photo: Visit Svalbard |
Climate
The climate of
Svalbard is dominated by its high latitude, with the average summer temperature
at 39° to 43° F and January averages 3° to 10° F. As I mentioned, we had some
unusually warm temperatures (and sunshine!), which was great from travel, but
not a good sign for the overall environment.
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| Sunshine at Fjortende Julibukta |
The West
Spitsbergen Current, the northernmost branch of the North Atlantic Current
system, moderates Svalbard's temperatures, particularly during winter. The warm
Atlantic water keeps the surrounding waters open and navigable most of the
year.
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| Glacial brash at Lilliehöökbreen |
Svalbard is
where cold polar air from the north and mild, wet sea air from the south meet,
creating changeable weather and strong winds, particularly in winter. In summer,
fog is common. We were fortunate to have calm seas (we have heard some trips
can be brutal) and we had some fog.
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| Fog at Smeerenburgfjorden |
Precipitation
is frequent, but falls in small quantities, typically less than 16 inches per
year in western Spitsbergen. More rain falls on the uninhabited east side,
where there can be more than 39 inches a year.
The trip we
took was billed an “expedition” because weather dictates where we could (and
should) travel. At the same time last year, the pack ice was extremely
(dangerously) far north and the ship was able completely navigate the top of
Svalbard and explore the flatter and less visited eastern side.
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| Pack ice |
On our trip,
the pack ice was unusually far south (it appeared to have been blown from Alaska
until it smashed into Svalbard), so we could not go around the top. Therefore,
all our adventures were on the western side of the archipelago. We did spend a
day cruising the edge of the pack ice, which I will talk about later.
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| Polar Bears in Fjortende Julibukta |
Nature
In addition to
humans, three primarily terrestrial mammals inhabit the archipelago:
the Arctic Fox, the Svalbard Reindeer and accidentally introduced Southern Voles,
which are found only in Grumant.
There are 20 types of marine mammals,
including Whales, Dolphins, Seals, Walruses and the big draw, Polar Bears.
During the course of our visit, we saw a few (but way less than I expected) Seals, primarily Bearded Seals, and a few Harp Seals.
We saw no Dolphins and just a few distant Whale blows (possibly Humpbacks and Fins) and a couple of Minke Whales passed by. I managed to see just one and get a photo of a tiny bit of its dorsal fin (I will post that later). I was, quite frankly, surprised that there weren't more Whales and Dolphins (we made up for that later in Iceland).
We were fortunate enough to see quite a few Walruses. I will talk about them in more detail in a later post.
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| A Walrus haul-out at Magdalenefjorden |
About 80
species of birds are found on Svalbard, of which 16 are on the IUCN Red List.
Most Svalbard birds are migratory, including the Arctic Tern, which flies all
the way from Antarctica and back each year. A total of 22,000 miles. No wonder they can be a bit cranky!
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| Arctic Tern at Lilliehöökbreen |
The Barents Sea is among the areas in the world with
most seabirds, with about 20 million individuals during late summer. The most
common are Dovekie (also known as the Little Auk), Northern Fulmar, Black Guillemot, Thick-billed Murre and Black-legged Kittiwake. We saw all the species I just
mentioned (many, many of them) and more, which I will cover later.
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| Thick-billed Murres in the pack ice |
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| Snow Bunting, Magdalenefjorden |
In addition to being migratory, most of the birds in Svalbard are seabirds or shorebirds.
Only two
songbirds migrate to Svalbard to breed: the Snow Bunting and the Wheatear.
Rock Ptarmigan is the only bird that overwinters.
Of those three, we saw only Snow Buntings.
In fact, we saw quite a few of the cute little Snow Buntings, both in Longyearbyen, where their black-and-white plumage stood out in the dried grass and in Magdalenefjorden, where they blended perfectly with the white snow and black rock.
Svalbard is also home to duck and geese, including Common Eiders, Barnacle Geese, Pink-footed Geese ad King Eiders. I saw them all, but just one very far away King Eider.
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| Clockwise: Barnacle Goose, Common Eiders, Pink-footed Goose, distant King Eider |
Svalbard has
permafrost and tundra, with low, middle and high Arctic vegetation, including
165 species of plants. Only areas that defrost in the summer have vegetation,
which accounts for about 10 percent of the archipelago. While there is little
precipitation, giving the archipelago a steppe climate, plants still have good
access to water because the cold climate reduces evaporation. The growing
season is very short and may last only a few weeks.
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| Saxifrage |
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| Map: Wikipedia |
Svalbard has
seven National Parks: Forlandet, Indre
Wijdefjorden, Nordenskiöld Land, Nordre Isfjorden Land, Nordvest-Spitsbergen,
Sassen-Bünsow Land and Sør-Spitsbergen. The archipelago has 15 bird
sanctuaries, one geotopic protected area and six nature reserves, with
Nordaust-Svalbard and Søraust-Svalbard both being larger than any of the National
Parks.
Most of the Nature Reserves and three of the National Parks were created
in 1973, with the remaining areas gaining protection in the 2000s.
All human
traces dating from before 1946 are automatically protected. Together, these protected
areas make up 65 percent of the archipelago. Svalbard is on Norway's tentative
list for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Svalbard is a special, jaw-droppingly beautiful place. Over my next series of posts, I'll introduce you to the places, the animals and the experiences.
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| Lots of photos to come! |
Trip date: June 15-July 4, 2019
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