The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic MarineLiving Resources has met annually since 1982, with the task of implementing the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources; the treaty which was designed to manage rationally the exploitation of resources in the Southern Ocean. The central resource of the region is Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba Dana) and despite nine years of meetings the Commission has yet to adopt any conservation measures to protect krill. This article examines the published work of the Commission, seeking to determine how the Commission has dealt with the krill fishery and why it has not yet developed a krill management plan.

This article summarises the history of the discovery of emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri colonies. Emperor penguins were probably first seen on James Cook's second voyage (1773–1775) but were not recorded as a separate species until 1844. The first breeding colony of these birds was found in 1902 and a further 32 were sighted over the next century. The total number of colonies is still unknown but today satellite technology is aiding the process of discovery.

Despite its numerous valuable contributions to Arctic governance, throughout its history the Arctic Council (AC) has been subject to criticism and reform proposals from academic, non-governmental and practitioner communities alike. In order to inform this ongoing debate, the paper evaluates the proposals that have been presented for the AC thus far. The proposals are grouped into three clusters: legal reforms, organisational reforms and functional reforms. Each of them is examined in terms of its applicability and usefulness to the case of the AC, and specifically its suitability given the prevailing conditions in the Arctic. What the conducted analysis reveals is that the ideas regarding means to enhance the AC’s effectiveness can be largely attributed to the assumptions their proponents make—oftentimes implicitly—about the nature of state actors and international relations more broadly, without attending to the particular conditions of the case study at hand. This is an important inference, given the unrelenting change happening in both Arctic and global socio-environmental settings that calls into question the usefulness of past modes of thinking and forms of international cooperation. Far from offering solutions, their continuous application in particular circumstances might even impede progress in addressing present and future challenges.

This article attempts to reconcile the fact that fishing has been and continues to be a large part of the Gwich'in local economy with the fact that fishing has been neglected in both popular and scientific accounts of Gwich'in practice. The article puts forth an explanation for why fishing has been neglected while at the same time documenting the corpus of fishing activities included in the yearly round. It also situates fishing as an important, but largely underestimated, part of the Canadian fur trade and explains how fish came to be used by traders and Gwich'in in a system of advances that benefited both parties. As a so-called secondary activity, fishing is entangled in Gwich'in history and their current way of life, and this article challenges the idea that it can be easily separated from other land based activities.

The four polar years are used as windows for highlighting changes in the character of polar research over the past 125 years. The approach taken may be seen as one of an archaeology of knowledge. As such it fixes on four separate strata in the history of science and seeks to lay bare distinctive features in each of these. To simplify, the focus is selective, mainly presenting three types of aspect for each year. The first is the character of the instruments and research technologies employed in each, and the second is the kinds of problems tackled, while the third is the associated view or ideal of science that stands out. The latter aspect has to do with epistemology. The paper suggests that whereas work during the first International Polar Year (IPY) reflected an empirical inductivist philosophy of science, during the second IPY a mix of problem oriented, and hypothesis driven, approaches existed alongside inductivism. By the time of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) the theoretical foundations of polar research had grown stronger and much of the focus had shifted to larger scale geophysical processes. Finally, today's ambition to develop an integrated Earth system science reflects an ideal that is systemic, constructivist and predictive. Such epistemological features are evident in some of the most advanced forms of computer aided analysis of Arctic and Antarctic processes, as well as in visualisation methodologies used to interpret and present data, concepts, models and theories. This latest approach is evident in some of the planning and agenda setting documents generated under the auspices of the current IPY.

During the last decade, aboriginal peoples in Russia have sought to improve their legal rights, including their rights to their homelands and the resources of these lands. The Russian government initially responded to an aboriginal lobby by including discrete articles addressing aboriginal rights in a number of its laws, including those on forests, sub-surface resources, and protected areas. More comprehensive laws, specifically addressing aboriginal rights to land, were finally adopted at the turn of the twenty-first century, in 1999, 2000, and 2001. This article summarizes the rights of aboriginal peoples regarding land ownership/tenure, access to natural resources (renewable and sub-surface), and protection of ancestral lands, in the light of the new federal legislation. It also notes how the federal laws' provisions concur with international requirements for aboriginal land rights.

Heterotrophic and hydrocarbon-degrading microbial populations in soils from different depths in a permafrost soil profile at a hydrocarbon-contaminated site at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, were examined and compared to the populations present at a pristine site. The objective was to investigate whether the populations were enhanced after 12 years of exposure to hydrocarbons. Based on air and soil temperature data, it is concluded that the microorganisms living in these environments are cold-adapted. Proliferation of the populations by a factor of 100–1000 was measured in the layers where mineral oil was present in high concentrations. This indicates that the populations responded to the additional carbon source by degradation and growth on hydrocarbons or hydrocarbon metabolites. A high number of intrinsic heterotrophic and hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria is a prerequisite for in situ bioremediation of contaminated sites. Although the hydrocarbon-degrading activities of the populations are not known, the results show that the population sizes probably do not represent the limiting factor in a bioremedial action at this contaminated Arctic permafrost site.

The Arctic Ocean is the home of three major groups of mammals that depend on the sea for survival and show varying degrees of adaptation for maritime life. Most fully adapted are the whales (Cetacea), which never leave the water, and the seals and walruses (Pinnipedia) that feed entirely at sea but emerge onto land or ice for pupping and basking. Less exclusively marine are two species of the order Carnivora—Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus), that seldom live far from the sea because they feed almost entirely upon seals, and Arctic Foxes (Alopex lagopus), some of which move out onto the sea ice during the winter, mainly to scavenge on the remains of seals killed by Polar Bears.

The cause of the phenomenally high winds recorded by Sir Douglas Mawson's party at Cape Denison during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911–14 (Mawson, 1939), and by the French expedition to Port Martin in 1950–51 (Boujon, 1954) has never been satisfactorily explained. As indicated in the Table, the annual mean wind recorded at those stations, 71·1 and 64·6 km per h respectively, is about 70 per cent greater than recorded elsewhere around the coast at stations fully exposed to katabatic flow, notably Mirny and Mawson. Admittedly, the total number of coastal stations is small, considering the length of the Antarctic coastline, and one cannot exclude the possibility that similar very strong winds prevail in other places. Nevertheless, the figures for Cape Denison and Port Martin are notable, if not unique, and the question arises why this should occur on the coast of Terre Adélie.

This article considers the legal and policy issues surrounding the establishment of continental shelves beyond 200 nautical miles (nm) from sub-Antarctic islands. Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) a coastal state may establish a continental shelf that extends seawards beyond 200 nm where the continental shelf continues, normally to a total distance of no more than 350 nm. To establish such an extended continental shelf (ECS) a coastal state must file a submission of delineation data with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), a technical body established by UNCLOS.

The rights of coastal states present particular difficulties in the Antarctic Treaty area (ATA), due to the general non-recognition of the seven territorial claims and the provisions of article IV of the Antarctic Treaty. Accordingly, Antarctic claimant states are generally adopting a restrained approach to the issue of ECS as appertaining to claimed territories in Antarctica in their submissions to the CLCS. These states appear to recognise that they cannot secure the normal prerogatives of a coastal state from territorial sea baselines within the ATA, at least for the duration of the present Antarctic Treaty system (ATS). A different approach is being taken with respect of sub-Antarctic islands lying north of the ATA. Sovereignty over sub-Antarctic territory north of the ATA is, with the exception of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, not contested. Accordingly, rights in relation to any continental shelf attaching to sub-Antarctic islands may be realised, apparently without challenging the Antarctic modus vivendi.

However, the ECS of several sub-Antarctic islands penetrate the ATA. In 2008, the CLCS largely endorsed the 2004 Australian submission that included data on ECS from Australia's sub-Antarctic islands of Macquarie Island and the Heard and McDonald group. The ECS from both groups penetrates south of 60°S into the ATA, in the case of Heard and McDonald covering a huge area. Although the wider dispute regarding sovereignty between the United Kingdom and Argentina adds complexity to the case, the South Sandwich Islands are sufficiently close to the ATA that their continental shelf also penetrates the area. In the event that the CLCS were ever able to make a recommendation on a submission of data relating to the South Sandwich Islands (something that could only occur with the consent of Argentina and the United Kingdom) the result would be a situation similar to that pertaining to the Australian sub-Antarctic islands.

The consequence of these developments is that rights to seabed areas within the ATA have been assigned to individual states. On the face of it, this appears to be in conflict with the norm of collective responsibility that was established by the Antarctic Treaty 50 years ago precisely to constrain sovereignty issues in the region. What is suggested by this practice is a difference in the attitude of Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties (ATCPs) to rights generated from territory within the ATA and rights generated from external territory. Nonetheless, there may be significant implications flowing from the latter for resource issues within the ATA. Minerals exploitation on sub-Antarctic extended continental shelf within the ATA is precluded in the near-term because of cost, the formal prohibition under article 7 of the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, and the fact that all sub-Antarctic coastal states are ATCPs. However the situation in regard to other resource activities is less clear. Bioprospecting could proceed subject to coastal state approval pursuant to the provisions of UNCLOS relating to marine scientific research, and there is no mandatory regulation under the ATS. The possibility that a coastal state may seek to realise rights on the ECS in relation to genetic resources may complicate collective ATS approaches and pose wider geopolitical challenges. In the longer term, the fact that some Antarctic states are presently seeking to secure rights that are essentially about ensuring their preclusive access to resources may have significant implications for strategic interests in the greater Antarctic region.

The Ukraine crisis has led to tensions between Russia and the western states and the Arctic is one of the affected regions. Regional cooperation, institutions, and international law are essential for Arctic governance, and the crisis may thus have wide-ranging consequences for high north politics. The present article develops an interest-based model of Arctic conflict spill-over and examines its strength, based on a case-study of the first 18 months of the Ukraine crisis. Three hypotheses for Arctic conflict spill-over are developed: Arctic conflict spill-over will be less severe than spill-over in other regions, the western states will be more assertive than Russia, and the smaller Arctic states will be less assertive than the larger states. A review of the crisis confirms the bulk of these hypotheses with some exceptions, thus demonstrating that an interests-based model holds some merit, while also showing that a complete understanding of Arctic conflict spill-over necessitates a broader approach. The article concludes that conflict spillover is unlikely, but not impossible, in the Arctic.

Legacy waste is a significant problem in Antarctica. This is particularly the case where waste generated on stations prior to the 1980s was incinerated, placed in landfill sites or disposed of at sea. Although several Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) reports from the 1980s recognise that there are contaminated sites at the abandoned Wilkes Station, there has been no systematic attempt to classify the waste or define the spatial scale of the problem, making development of strategic and systematic clean-up or preservation programmes difficult. This article reports on a project to classify the waste remaining on Clark Peninsula using categories listed in Annex III, Article 2 of the Madrid Protocol (1991). 536 sites with one or more waste items have been identified in nine categories that are based on the degree of waste hazard, recyclability, heritage value and waste management potential. Fuel drums, petroleum hydrocarbons waste and contaminated sediment occur at 38% of the sites. This waste includes around 1020 partially full fuel drums. Heritage items that illustrate expedition life at Wilkes occur at about 10% of the sites. Solid, non-combustible waste, including scrap metal, copper wire and pipe, and steel mechanical parts, occurs at 25% of the sites. Potentially hazardous or harmful waste including electrical batteries, plastics including fuel bladders, food remains, treated timber and containers containing persistent compounds occur at 28% of sites. Although hazardous substances, such as caustic soda, explosives and asbestos, occur at only 9% of the sites, these items represent significant contamination and heath issues for the sites and for visiting explorers. Any future clean-up operations will require more than just the physical removal of waste. Preservation, removal and treatment of various types of waste from Wilkes will be required as part of a multi-year, multi-strategy approach.

During the last decades, scholarly studies on Arctic identities have been on the increase, but less is known about how academic viewpoints diverge from aboriginal perspectives. The aim of this article is to compare both points of view, by looking at the way some academic specialists define Arctic identities, in contrast — or convergence — with how one Arctic people, the Inuit, perceive who they are. Twelve scholars conducting social research in the north and recognised for their competence were interviewed on their definition of identity and their assessment of the current situation of Arctic aboriginal populations. Their responses show that they view identity as a relational and constructed process, a process that continues without much disruption despite rapid social and cultural change. As modern Inuit are concerned, ethnography and personal testimonies tend to show that they perceive identity as an open-ended and individual — as opposed to collective — relationship rather than as a way of classifying people. Inuit perceptions agree on some points — the relational aspects for instance — but diverge on others — for example, the primarily individual nature of identity — from those of the interviewed scholars, and they should be taken into account in any assessment of the current human situation in the Arctic.

The archipelago of Svalbard is a good example of an Arctic locale undergoing rapid changes on multiple levels. This contribution is a joint effort of three anthropologists with up-to-date ethnographic data from Svalbard (mostly Longyearbyen and Barentsburg) to frame and interpret interconnected changes. The processes impacting Svalbard are related to issues such as geopolitical interests, and increasing pressure by the Norwegian government to exercise presence and control over the territory. Our interpretations are based on a bottom-up approach, drawing on experiences living in the field. We identify three great ruptures in recent years – the avalanche of 2015, the gradual phasing out of mining enterprises and the COVID-19 pandemic – and show how they further impact, accelerate or highlight preexisting vulnerabilities in terms of socio-economic development, and environmental and climate change. We discuss the shift from coal mining to the industries of tourism, education, and research and development, and the resulting changed social and demographic structure of the settlements. Another facet is the complexity of environmental drivers of change and how they relate to the socio-economic ones. This article serves as an introductory text to the collection of articles published in Polar Record in 2021/2022 with the overarching theme “changing Svalbard”. Issues discussed range from socio-economic change and its implications for local populations including identity of place, through tourism (value creation, mediation, human–environment relations, environmental dilemmas, balancing contradictory trends), to security and risk perception, and environmental and climate change issues.

Like many great institutions, the Antarctic Treaty system has its own creation myth, according to which it was brought into being by the Antarctic science programme of the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year (IGY). As myths are prone to do, this one combines both an important truth and a good deal of misinformation. After fifty years in which it has shamelessly flattered the earth scientists, who are understandably rather fond of it, and undervalued the many non-scientists who advocated the internationalisation of Antarctica from 1910 onwards, it is time to lay it to rest. But before summarising the intermeshing contributions of private citizens, diplomats and other officials, and scientists, we should first take note of a different factor altogether, political geography.

This article provides an historical account and analysis of the repurposing of Ny-Ålesund from Arctic coalmining settlement to Norwegian-administered international research base in Svalbard. Three levels of analysis are employed to explain the settlement’s transformation and its rising geopolitical significance, focusing primarily on the period of rapid internationalisation and expansion of scientific activities starting in the late 1980s. The local level examines Norway’s efforts to maintain effective occupation of greater Kongsfjorden by promoting research, underpinned by the economisation of the area’s near-pristine natural environment as a non-extractive resource for science; the global level applies the concept of telecoupling to consider the role of events and processes at larger spatial scales that facilitated Ny-Ålesund’s transformation; and the “glocal” level explains how the interaction of Norwegian and global actors in the locality of Ny-Ålesund have collectively shaped the community’s institutions over some 30 years. The article also reflects on recent policy changes signalling more assertive Norwegian administration and greater coordination of research in Ny-Ålesund.

The Antarctic environment is well known for its hostility (cold, isolation, and confinement). The effects of the Antarctic experience on human health are controversial, as some studies emphasise negative (‘pathogenic’) and others positive (‘salutogenic’) effects. In the process of human adaptation to extreme environments, the cognitive and behavioural strategies — defined as coping — that individuals use are a basic component.

This study investigated the use and the changes of coping strategies in nine Antarctic wintering-over expeditioners by administering the COPE questionnaire three times during the year. The results showed a composite use of the coping strategies in the group. The ways of coping, focusing on problem solving and developing personal maturity, were judged to be those most used over the period. Some variations connected with the specific environment were noticed. There was an increase in self-distancing from problems, disengaging from the socio-operational environment, procrastinating, and emotional levelling, particularly in mid-winter. This lethargic, apathetic attitude, which is called ‘freezing,’ may represent a defence against useless energy expenditure and may reduce stress response. This ‘immobilisation’ strategy, well reflected in the symptoms of the ‘winter-over syndrome,’ appears to be adaptive in an environment where the control an individual can exert is highly limited. The results seem to support the salutogenic effects of the winter-over experience.

The Mrdalsjkull ice cap, in southern Iceland, was visited in July and August 1975 by a party of seven, operating from a base camp on its western side, at the head of the Prsmrk valley. The objectives of the expedition were to record evidence of changes in the extent of the ice cap since its last re-advance (about 1850?) with a view to correlation with climatic data, and to examine the role of imagery from the Earth Resources Technology Satellite-1 (ERTS-1) in this context.

In thirteen (mostly soil) mixed samples, collected from nine localities on the Antarctic continent and some of the neighbouring islands, 788 specimens and 32 eggs of tardigrades were found. In total, five species were identified: Acutuncus antarcticus, Echiniscus jenningsi, Diphascon (D.) victoriae, Hypsibius dujardini and Ramajendas dastychi sp. nov. A. antarcticus was the most abundant (nearly 90% of all specimens) and was the prevailing taxon found in the majority of locations. R. dastychi sp. nov. is the fourth species described in the exclusively Antarctic/sub-Antarctic genus. The new species differs from all other congeners by the presence of four gibbosities on the caudo-dorsal cuticle (configuration II:2–2) and also by some morphometric characters. In this paper we also briefly discuss the taxonomy and zoogeography of the genus Ramajendas.

Trends in the annual minimum sea-ice extent, determined by three criteria (absolute annual minimum, minimum monthly mean, and the extent at the end of August), were investigated for the Barents and western Kara seas and adjacent parts of the Arctic Ocean during 1984–1993. Four definitions of ice extent were examined, based on thresholds of ice concentration: >90%, >70%, >40%, and >10% (El, E2, E3, and E4, respectively). Trends were studied using ice maps produced by the Russian Hydro-Meteorological Service, Kosmos and Okean satellite imagery, and data extracted from published literature. During 1984–1993, an increasing trend in the extent of minimum sea-ice cover was observed in the Barents, Kara, and combined Barents–Kara seas, for all ice-extent definitions. Root-mean-square differences between hydro-meteorological ice maps and satellite-image ice classifications for coincident areas and dates were 15.5%, 19.3%, 18.8%, and 11.5%, for ice extensions El–E4, respectively. The differences were subjected to Monte Carlo analyses to construct confidence intervals for the 10-year ice-map trends. With probability p = 0.8, the average 10-year increase in the minimum monthly mean sea-ice extent (followed in brackets by the average increase in the absolute annual minimum ice extent) was 12–46% [26–96%], 31–71% [55–140%], 30–69% [26–94%], and 48–94% [35–108%] in the Barents Sea; 20–60% [32–120%], 10–45% [20–92%], 2–36% [13–78%], and 10–47% [8–69%] in the Kara Sea; and 9–43% [26–59%], 9–41% [30–63%], 8–41% [22–52%] and 15–51% [21–51%] in the combined Barents–Kara seas, for ice concentrations El–E4, respectively. Including published data from 1966–1983, the trend in minimum monthly mean sea-ice extent for the combined 28-year period showed an average reduction of 8% in the Barents Sea and a 55% reduction in the western Kara Sea; ice extent at the end of August showed an average reduction of 33% in the Barents Sea.