The Swedish North is sometimes described as a resource periphery, while others choose to label it a pleasure periphery. Regardless of the terms used, the region is characterised by problems such as out-migration and demographic issues. This study investigates why there are such different perceptions of the same area, and whether there is any contradiction between extractive resource industries and the tourism industry. This is done by collecting visitor data from mining companies and conducting interviews with a variety of respondents in three mining communities in northern Sweden. Mining tourism is a phenomenon occurring in this region and can be regarded as a context in which the two main narratives meet while being a rather overlooked form of tourism. This is partly due to the low level of knowledge regarding its impacts, but also to a somewhat established idea of mining tourism as a “bad” form of tourism. Individuals’ perceptions of mining tourism as a phenomenon seem to be highly value-related and influenced by both location and occupation. As such, various opinions can be explained by social exchange theory, which proposes that attitudes will be influenced by individuals’ evaluation of outcomes for themselves and their community. In this paper, the emergence of mining tourism is understood as knowledge creation rooted in a regional path dependency on mining and tourism. Hence, mining tourism becomes a new regional tourism product that contributes to tourism, at least in terms of standard technical visits and, at best, a well-developed tourist attraction that appeals to visitors in quantities similar to iconic regional attractions such as the Icehotel. Then again, a tourism industry selling dreams of “untouched nature” argues that this tourism product produces “bad imaging”.

The Arctic plays an important role in controlling the Earth's climate and ocean circulation. Studies of past climate conditions in high latitudes are important to understand this role more precisely. Clay mineralogy of sediments was detected to be comparative with cyclic changes in climatic conditions during the past 0.8 Ma in the northernmost Atlantic-Arctic gateway (Ocean Drilling Program, Site 911). Clay minerals are transported by sea ice, icebergs, glaciofluvially, or by ocean currents. Smectite is assumed to be transported predominantly during interglacial periods. Its content decreases from about 0.4 Ma to the present, which may indicate lesser eroded smectite in the provenance area, assumed to be mostly in the Laptev Sea. Illite is due to erosion from Svalbard during glacial periods, and shows a negative correlation with smectite. Chlorite is not a good climate indicator because of its high frequency in the northern regions. Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa (Franz Josef Land) is the most likely source area of kaolinite and the output seems to have slightly increased from 0.5 to 0.4 Ma. The correlation of kaolinite and chlorite means coincidental sedimentation. Kaolinite and chlorite are negatively correlated with illite, which indicates transportation during the more open ocean conditions that prevailed between repeated Pleistocene glaciations.

This article takes a normative approach to explore what and how we might learn from existing indigenous governance arrangements in the Arctic and how they may contribute to the larger debates over Arctic governance and who decides. It begins with a brief exploration of the existing literature regarding co-management; particularly what some legal scholars have defined as post-Westphalian resource management as well as engaging ongoing discussions about co-management as it pertains to the Arctic. It then turns to the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC) as a case study and possible starting point for governing newly emerging resource management issues in the Arctic. Specifically, this article will look at how the governance framework of the AEWC might be applicable for the current governance discussions regarding Arctic offshore oil and gas development. Lastly, this paper will offer preliminary reflections as to how a post-sovereign resource management approach could contribute to the broader theoretical debates concerning who owns the Arctic and who decides. Specifically it offers one possible way to envisage the future of a strengthened Arctic Council operating in a world where states are not the only actors participating in the governance of the Arctic.

A collective outreach approach is fundamental for a scientific project. The Green Edge Project studied the impact of climate change on the dynamics of phytoplankton and their role in the Arctic Ocean, including the impact on human populations. We involved scientists and target audiences to ensure that the communications strategy was in agreement with scientists and audience requirements. We developed websites (academic site and blogs and an educational platform). Then, we produced a 52-minute documentary, ‘Arctic Bloom’, and infographics were created to explain experiments on the ice. We also organised a photo exhibition and live videos that enabled primary school-age students to ask questions directly of scientists working on the research icebreaker. Finally, both students and professionals drew their own conception of Arctic science, and our social media sites reached diverse groups of people. The evaluation results showed a large number of education structures (approximately 8000 schools and 104 museums or educational organisations) engaged with our communications outputs and encouraging statistics about website visits (117 021 and 3739 visits on the blog and the YouTube channel, respectively). Selecting different, but intersecting techniques, to promote a better understanding of the science contributed to the success of the communication and outreach outputs of the 3-year project.

The 1959 Antarctic Treaty made Antarctica the world’s first and only demilitarised continent, the world’s first denuclearised zone, and pioneered a comprehensive inspections system. This article explores Antarctic arms control as past precedent. It finds that the United States, which spearheaded the Antarctic Treaty negotiations, initially rationalised arms control in Antarctica as an isolated endeavour. Yet its potential elsewhere quickly appealed to various officials involved in the treaty negotiations and aligned with public perception. Subsequent initiatives for arms control took broad inspiration from the Antarctic Treaty, but regional differences limited specific adaptations.

In recent years, pioneer photographers in the Arctic have been researched. The last was W.J.A. Grant, who sailed as a photographer with Sir Allen Young in Pandora in 1876. Grant made another seven photographic trips to the Arctic. Four voyages were in the Dutch Arctic schooner Willem Barents, the others in British yachts. Grant's photographic legacy is considerable, but little known. The majority of his work was done for the Dutch and is still preserved in the Netherlands. Recently it has been possible to identify photographs by Grant in British collections. This article examines Grant and his work as an Arctic photographer.

“It was during this month of June, that Drs Mcllroy and Macklin transformed our snuggery into an operating theatre and amputated the frost-bitten toes of our youngest member, Blackborrow, who had been suffering severely and was a chronic cripple. Wild and I acted as hospital orderlies and maintained the temperature of the ‘theatre’ at 50°, by stoking-up the bogie fire with penguin skins. In the dense smoke, by the feeble glimmer of blubber lamps, Macklin administered the chloroform and Mcllroy performed the operation which saved Blackborrow's leg if not indeed his life.”

The Winter Weddell Gyre Study was conducted by an international group of scientists, including members of the Scott Polar Research Institute, from FS Polarstern (FRG) in September and October 1989, in collaboration with RV Akademk Federov (USSR). This was a multi-disciplinary experiment involving biologists, chemists, oceanographers and meteorologists. The SPRI involvement centred on sea-ice research, involving both our own experiments and a programme carried out in collaboration with the other research groups on board. The SPRI programme involved measuring ice thickness; studying the under-ice topography with an upward looking sidescan sonar; investigating the acceleration, tilt and strain of the ice; deploying Argos buoys; aerial photography; iceberg tracking; and two acoustic experiments, one to record ambient noise and the other to acoustically measure the ice thickness.

Four case studies are presented that focus on a joint analysis of AVHRR images with other independently obtained data sets to identify examples of both optically thick and thin polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) over Antarctica. Optically thick PSCs are shown to be readily identifiable by the temperature signatures in AVHRR channel 5 images over the Antarctic Peninsula–Weddell Sea area. A time series of optically thick PSCs as seen in satellite images obtained at Palmer Station, Antarctica, is produced and discussed. Four events are identified and discussed where the areal coverage by cold temperatures indicative of PSCs expands to cover a significant portion of the area sampled. Plans for further research are outlined.

On 16 October 1901 Otto Nordenskjöld departed from Sweden for Antarctica. According to most accounts published during the twentieth century, the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901–03 planned and executed a substantial scientific programme, and made heroic efforts to overcome the adversity faced. This article investigates whether these descriptions are accurate and complete by examining both the long-established reports of Nordenskjöld's expedition and numerous rarely used primary sources, such as diaries and letters. In comparing these primary sources with narratives from various expedition members, competing versions of aspects of the expedition appear. This article particularly focuses on reports concerning sealing and whaling, and on the representation of the human frailties of the expedition members.

During the second Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition in summer 2003, sea ice cores and the underlying water were sampled from seven stations in the pack ice zone of the Canada Basin and were examined with a phase contrast microscope. A total of 102 and 78 algal species were identified for the ice cores and the underlying water, respectively, ranking in the middle range among the surveys of the Arctic Ocean up to the present despite seasonal variability. The Shannon-Wiener indices ranged from 1.40 to 4.88 with an average of 3.58 ± 0.68. Diatom species, especially pennate species, dominated in all the samples. A large number of algal spores were contained in every layer (abundance percentage > 1%). The microalgal abundances ranged from 1.4 × 104 to 8.73 × 105 cells L−1 and the biomass ranged from 0.56 to 89.49 μg L−1. They were correlated with the number of algal species (P < 0.05) but not with the diversity index (P > 0.05). Ice algal maxima were observed in various layers (bottom, interior and near the surface of the ice floes). The phytoplankton biomass in the ice-water interface was one order of magnitude lower than that in the bottom ice (P < 0.05). The species number and the diversity index in water samples, with much less biomass (P < 0.01), were comparative with the ice samples (P > 0.05). Spatial heterogeneity in both horizontal and vertical directions was the main characteristic of the algal community structure, which was demonstrated by the cluster analysis result and the distribution patterns.

Upon the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 there were three coal mines in full production in Svalbard: the Norwegian Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani Aktieselskap at Longyearbyen, and two Russian Arktikugol mines, at Barentsburg and Grumantbyen. In addition the Russians had begun to develop Pyramiden, an old Swedish claim sold to the Russian company Russky-Grumant in 1926 and taken over by Arktikugol when that company was founded in 1931: Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani A/S was investigating and repairing the old Swedish mine at Sveagruva bought from Svenska Stenkols Aktiebolaget in 1934: and another Norwegian company, Norske Kulfelter A/S, was engaged in trial workings at Moskushamn on the east side of Adventfjorden. In all, the population of Svalbard numbered some 2500 miners, and a small number of wireless operators, meteorological observers, and trappers.W. Marlow was Sysselmann.

We describe a spatial reference system that uniquely identifies 4884 coastal island and continental rock features across East Antarctica. The system comprises a series of maps and a related database, and can be a foundation tool for a wide range of environmental studies.

In 2008, the emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri colony at Amanda Bay, East Antarctica, was designated an Antarctic Specially Protected Area by the 31st Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is only the third emperor penguin colony in the Australian Antarctic Territory to receive this status. The colony has been known to exist since 1956 and numerous visits have been made to it, especially by personnel from Australia's Davis station. On a number of occasions, attempts were made to estimate the number of birds in the colony in order to obtain an insight into the size of the breeding population. Here we report on the history of visitation to the colony since the 1950s and examine the quality of information collected with regard to the usefulness of this information in terms of population analyses. We also report the results of the first visit to the Amanda Bay colony made in winter with the specific purpose of estimating the number of birds present and of highlighting the need for long term monitoring programmes to assess the viability of emperor penguins in future.

The spade, or snow shovel, is an item of equipment required by any community living in the snow, particularly in the accumulation area of an ice sheet, where any object placed on the snow is eventually buried beneath a continually rising surface. Roald Amundsen, Alfred Wegener, R. E. Byrd, A. R. Glen and others have described the hours and sometimes days spent by members of their expeditions moving snow by hand. The Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition, 1949–52 was no exception. Some shovelling is unavoidable, being a consequence of natural accumulation, but much results from the burial of stores and equipment under snowdrifts caused either by the objects themselves or by their neighbours.

The results are presented of the first winter ice navigation demonstration, using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the Canadian satellite RADARSAT, onboard the nuclear icebreaker Sovetskiy Soyuz in the Kara Sea region in April–May 1998. While ERS SAR data only could cover part of the sea ice in this large area, the demonstration showed that RADARSAT ScanSAR images with 100 m pixel size could be used to map all relevant ice areas with a few 500 × 500 km scenes. SAR images transferred onboard icebreakers in near real time offer an excellent possibility to select optimal sailing routes in difficult ice conditions such as those that were encountered by this expedition. SAR images were also used for planning of operations prior to the expedition. This study compares sub-satellite sea-ice observations with RADARSAT SAR as well as Okean side-looking radar (SLR) signatures of the major ice types and features found in the Kara Sea during winter. Wide-swath SAR images will become available from several new satellites in the near future, such as Envisat, scheduled in 2001, and RADARSAT-2, in 2002. Satellite SAR images will therefore play an increasingly important role in operational ice monitoring both in the Northern Sea Route and in other ice areas.

Belgica, which Adrien de Gerlache used on the first expedition to winter in the Antarctic, was originally a bottlenose whaler named Patria, built in Norway in 1884. She was designed and constructed by Johan Chr. Jakobsen, renowned for his design of polar ships. Patria was sold to Adrien de Gerlache and renamed Belgica in 1896. In 1896–97 she was refitted and equipped in Sandefjord, Norway, for an Antarctic expedition. Nansen and Amundsen met for the first time on Belgica's deck. Late in 1899 Belgica returned to Antwerp after more than two years on an Antarctic expedition. From 1901 to 1904 Belgica returned to bottlenose whaling and, in addition, made a voyage to northeast Greenland to establish depots and build houses for the Baldwin-Ziegler Polar Expedition. In 1905 the Duc d'Orléans chartered her to survey the coast of northeast Greenland, and on her return he bought her. In 1907 and 1909 she sailed on Arctic expeditions led by the Duc d'Orléans and captained by de Gerlache. In 1916 she was sold to Det Norske Kulsyndikat and renamed Isfjord. She became a freighter carrying coal from Longyearbyen to ports in northern Norway. In 1918 she was sold and her new owner converted her into a floating cod-liver oil refinery and fish-processing plant. In 1940 she was impounded by British forces and used as a floating ammunition depot. On 19 May 1940 she was sunk during a German air raid. Her wreck was re-discovered in 1990.

The origins of the contemporary Newfoundland Harp and Hooded Seal fisheries can be traced back to the 16th and 17th centuries when ‘Biscainers’ (Spanish Basques) hunted whales, walrus and seals in the Gulf of St Lawrence and along the southern coast of Labrador (Prowse, 1895, p 43; Barkham, 1978). Throughout the next 400 years, as the seal fishery developed—both the landsmen and vessel operations—it became a major influence on the spread and character of settlement over a large area of Newfoundland and Labrador. By the middle of the 19th century, the large off-shore vessel operation had assumed the dominant role, and its contribution to the overall economic growth was second only to the cod fishery.