Geoffrey Francis Hattersley-Smith (‘Geoff’), who died on 21 July 2012, served for many years as a polar field scientist, contributing substantially to glaciological and geological surveys in both north and south polar regions. In later life he undertook research in another discipline altogether – the sorting and cataloguing of polar place names – an achievement in scholarship for which all other polar researchers may be thankful.

The increasing rate of incidents involving vessels in the Southern Ocean (including vessels sinking) has highlighted the potential for substantial fuel spills into the Antarctic environment. An increasing number of tourist and fishing vessels, often without ice strengthened hulls, are penetrating farther into, and staying longer in, Antarctic waters, with a focus for destinations of wildlife concentrations. Based on a survey of national operators in the Antarctic, there is little preparation for an oil spill event that involves Antarctic wildlife. This is a recipe for a catastrophic spill event, with the potential for high numbers of oiled wildlife in a remote part of the world where there are major logistical constraints on the provision of equipment and skilled response personnel. Here we chronicle shipping incidents that have led to oil spills in the Southern Ocean, the current legislation and contingency plans currently in place by national Antarctic operators, and examine their preparedness and expertise for an oiled wildlife event response. It is clear that national, fishing and tourism operators are manifestly unprepared for an oiled wildlife event in the Southern Ocean. We identify five critical constraints to any response and provide recommendations that address these constraints.

In the literature of the exploration of the Antarctic in the early 20th century, there are many references to ‘medical comforts’. While ‘medical comforts’ was sometimes used as a euphemism for alcoholic beverages, the term, which originated in the army, covered all foods and drinks used for the treatment and prevention of illness and during convalescence. This article describes the use of medical comforts during the Antarctic expeditions of the so called ‘heroic age’. Apart from alcohol, medical comforts included beef extracts, milk extracts and arrowroot. These products were extensively advertised to the medical and nursing professions and to the general public and the Antarctic connection was sometimes used in the advertising. The products were largely devoid of vitamins and their use may have contributed to some of the disease that occurred on these expeditions.

On 12 January 1921 the British Imperial Antarctic Expedition 1920–1922 led by 27 year old Cambridge graduate John Lachlan Cope, arrived at Paradise Harbour situated west of Andvord Bay on the Danco Coast, Graham Land. The four-man party was landed by Norwegian whalers, on a small island with a promontory they named ‘Water-boat Point’ now Waterboat Point (64°49’S, 62°52’E), because of an abandoned water-boat there. Fortunately ready accommodation was available in the boat and to this were attached cases of provisions to form an improvised hut with an extension added before winter. Cope and Wilkins his deputy leader stayed just six weeks and after helping to build the hut, in effect abandoned the other two members of the expedition, Bagshawe and Lester. The two men voluntarily remained and in the belief that they would be paid, vigorously pursued a varied scientific programme. Although lacking essential items including certain scientific instruments, they were comparatively well off until relieved by Norwegian whalers in January 1922. The expedition that lasted one year and a day and was supported logistically by Norwegian whalers, became the smallest British expedition to overwinter in Antarctica and was the only expedition at that time. Bagshawe and Lester produced an impressive record of observations in meteorology, biology, oceanography, glaciology, botany and geology. In 1951 when Chile established Presidente González Videla Station, remains of the water-boat and hut were present, but today little evidence remains of the site destroyed by natural processes, human intervention and buried by guano. With exception of a few papers and chapters in books, Two men in the Antarctic (Bagshawe 1939) remains the definitive work on this generally forgotten expedition. For this paper primary resources have focused on original manuscripts. Although much material including financial records if indeed they existed, has been lost, surviving documents provide insights into the expedition. Reasons for the eventual loss of Bagshawe and Lester's field station are discussed.

During an intense period of only 14 months, from June 2010 to August 2011, six major cooperation agreements between oil companies were announced in Russia. Almost all of these partnerships involved offshore projects, with an international oil company as one of the partners and Rosneft as the other. The agreements were concentrated along Russia's Arctic petroleum frontier, and the three that survived the longest involved oil or gas extraction in the Arctic. This article analyses and compares the contents and contexts of the agreements, to ascertain what they have to tell about access for international companies to Russia's offshore petroleum resources and the influence of competing Russian political actors over the country's petroleum sector. The article argues that the new partnerships did represent an intention to open up the Russian continental shelf, and that the agreements were driven and shaped by a series of needs: to secure foreign capital and competence, to reduce exploration risk, to lobby for a better tax framework, to show the government that necessary action was being taken to launch exploration activities, to improve Rosneft's image abroad, and either to avert or prepare for future privatisation of state companies such as Rosneft.

The EU ban on the import and commercialising of seals and seal products in the EU market, has attracted intense attention in recent years. As seal products mostly originate from outside the EU, it is argued that the EU action has been discriminatory and hence contrary to the WTO regulations. Canada and Norway have been critical of the EU regulation and have initiated dispute settlement procedures within the WTO since most of the products that enter into the internal market are mainly from these countries. The ban also provoked anger within the Inuit and other indigenous communities, mainly from Canada and Greenland. Although the EU regulation provides an exception for Inuit and indigenous hunts and the subsequent commercialisation of resulting products into the internal market, the exception suffers from clarity and lacks proper implementation procedures. The regulation is predicted to lead to the ultimate disappearance of the seal market in the EU, which directly affects the Inuit and other indigenous peoples engaged in sealing activities. They may lose their means of subsistence. While analysing the critical issues concerning the EU and the WTO regulations and its exceptions, the article focuses on the human rights perspective of the Arctic indigenous peoples affected by the EU ban.

Since the early part of the 20th century, the federal government has engaged in a long and slow process of devolution in the Canadian Arctic. Although the range of powers devolved to the territorial governments has been substantial over the years, the federal government still maintains control over the single most important jurisdiction in the region, territorial lands and resources, which it controls in two of the three territories, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This fact is significant for territorial governments because gaining jurisdiction over their lands and resources is seen as necessary for dramatically improving the lives of residents and governments in the Canadian north. Relying on archival materials, secondary sources, and 33 elite interviews, this paper uses a rational choice framework to explain why the Yukon territorial government was able to complete a final devolution agreement relating to lands and resources in 2001 and why the governments of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have not. It finds that the nature and distance of federal-territorial preferences, combined with government perceptions of aboriginal consent and federal perceptions of territorial capacity and maturity, explain the divergent outcomes experienced by the three territorial governments in the Canadian arctic.

The following acronyms are employed: AIP: Agreement-in-Principle; DTA: Devolution Transfer Agreement; GEB: gross expenditure base; GN: Government of Nunavut; GNWT: Government of Northwest Territories; NCLA: Nunavut Land Claims Agreement; NTI: Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated; NWT; Northwest Territories; ON: Ontario; TFF: Territorial Formula Financing; UFA: Umbrella Final Agreement; YDTA: Yukon Devolution Transfer Agreement; YTG: Yukon Territorial Government; YK: Yukon;

In 1819, the Russian government launched two expeditions: the first squadron of two ships departed to explore the southern polar areas, and the second set out for the northern polar areas. The expedition to the southern polar areas took place under the command of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. Up to the present day, very little information is available, from the Russian literature, about the initiator and main goals of the expedition. At the same time, the travels and main results of the expedition have been widely popularised, but not necessarily accurately, in Russian as well as in English. On the basis of recently discovered documents, this article attempts to establish who the initiator of these Russian expeditions was, how the expeditions were prepared, and whether the main tasks of the expeditions were realised. The conclusion is that Jean-Baptiste Prevost de Sansac, Marquis de Traversay was the initiator of the Russian Antarctic expedition, not the Russian navigators Adam Johan von Krusenstern, Otto von Kotzebue, Gavrila A. Sarychev or Vasilii M. Golovnin as stated in Soviet publications. The real aim of the expedition was to discover the Antarctic continent which would have added glory to de Traversay as well as to Emperor Alexander I and, in a wider sense, also to the Russian empire. All dates are given according to the old style calendar. The difference with the new style calendar is 12 days.

This paper considers the role of the Arctic Council (AC) and its relationship to the future or even futures. Factors such as sea ice thinning and melting permafrost, alongside globalisation, have been cited as consequential in transforming the Arctic region. While we might be cautious about the novelty of change per se, there is a need for further debate about how the ‘future’ is imagined and put into practice. Exploring different logics, including precaution, pre-emption and preparedness, consideration is offered on how the AC attempts to anticipate the future. The contentious role of observers is investigated by way of an example, and it is concluded that there is more work to be done in terms of how different futures are assembled, mobilised and put into practice.

In 1946, the Ainu Association of Hokkaido was established by the Ainu to reclaim their lands. The 1970s and 80s saw that the association successfully put pressure on the Hokkaido Prefectural Government to take social welfare measures for the improvement of their life and make a new law counter to the Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act. In 1997 the Japanese Government enacted the so-called New Ainu Law. However, it is totally different from the original draft made by the Ainu. The law does not designate the Ainu as indigenous people. Further, it is outstripped by the decision of Nibutani Dam Case that, for the first time in Japanese history, recognised Ainu right to culture and indigenousness in Japanese territory. In 2008 the Japanese Government finally recognised the Ainu as indigenous people in the wake of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, the Ainu do not yet have any indigenous rights. This note chronologically outlines Japan's post-war Ainu policy, and moreover explores who and what has influenced Ainu policy and the law.