Plans for a long-term study of Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in Spitsbergen were initiated in Norway in 1964. The programme is a joint operation between the University of Oslo and Norsk Polarinstitutt. It is divided in two-main projects:

1. Ecological investigations under T. Larsen, Institutt for Marin Biologi Avd A [Institute of Marine Biology AJ], University of Oslo.

2. Physiological investigations under N. A. Øritsland, Zoofysiologisk Institutt [Zoophysiological Institute], University of Oslo.

A third project, ecological and ornithological studies is under M. Norderhaug, Zoologisk Laboratorium [Zoological Laboratory], University of Oslo.

The preliminary plan for the biological programme in Spitsbergen was presented at the First International Scientific Meeting on the Polar Bear in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1965.

Breeding activity of pairs of south polar skuas (Catharacta maccormicki) in the eastern Larsemann Hills, Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica, was recorded in five of six austral summers between 1988 and 1994. More detailed observations of breeding success were made in the 1989/90 and 1993/94 summers. Although relatively few skuas nest in the study area, data suggest that there was inter-annual variation in numbers and locations of territories and chicks fledged. This variation is discussed in relation to increased human activities in the area (development of a summer base and more permanent stations) and to an enhanced access to human-derived foods. It is concluded that there has been some human impact on this species in the Larsemann Hills.

On 27 January 2011, the Fort Severn Cree nation presented its perspectives on the management of wabusk (Cree term for polar bear meaning the great wandering one) or polar bear (Ursus maritimus) to the international community. The following article provides an overview of the events that have transpired since the Conférence internationale mondes polaires held in Paris, France, on 26–28 January 2011. It begins by discussing the current state of the southern Hudson Bay polar bear sub-population and describing Cree interactions with polar bears before highlighting how the Fort Severn Cree nation is developing a co-management strategy through the indigenous stewardship model for polar bear management in its traditional territory in northern Ontario, Canada.

In 2021, the decision to close the last Norwegian coal mine on Svalbard was made, and with that, the Norwegian coal adventure on the archipelago came to an end. This was a result of a political process, which is the focus of this article. Drawing on fieldwork conducted during the fall of 2022, I argue that the political process of phasing out coal changed from a conflict over interests to a contest over symbolic capital. The article contributes to the understanding of Norwegian Svalbard politics and the “balancing act” that this represents. I focus on how power, in the form of shaping people’s perceptions and as prestige, influenced what interests prevail and why. The article addresses (1) why the decision to phase out coal was not made earlier, (2) what ultimately made this decision possible and (3) why and over what the key actors were still competing after the decision to phase out coal was made.

Ostrov Vrangelya, lat 71–72°N, long 178°E–177°W, is the largest island in the eastern Soviet Arctic. It has an area of 7 673 km2 and extends approximately 120 km east-west and 60 km north-south (see Fig 1). Five different flags have been raised on it—those of Great Britain, Canada, United States, Imperial Russia, and the Soviet Union—and it has had four different names in English since its first sighting by a white man: Kellett Land, Plover Land, New Columbia, and Wrangel Island. However, since 1924, no nation has disputed Soviet possession of the island.

In 1909, with two companions Swiss meteorologist Alfred de Quervain travelled to the Uummannaq area of west Greenland, to the same area investigated by Erich von Drygalski in 1892–1893. A major objective was to investigate the changes in the nearby outlet glaciers since Drygalski's visit. Man-hauling sledges, de Quervain and his companions also made a sortie into the interior of the ice cap, penetrating to a distance of about 100 km and to a height of about 1700 m. Having thus whetted his appetite, in1912 de Qervain mounted a further expedition aimed at making a crossing of the ice cap, only the second after that of Fridtjof Nansen in 1888, and along a trajectory significantly further north. De Quervain hoped to determine the shape and height of the ice cap along this trajectory. With three companions and using dog-sledges de Quervain set off from the Disko Bugt area of west Greenland and crossed the ice cap to the area of Ammassalik (now Tasiilaq) on the east coast. In 31 days on the ice the party travelled some 640 km, reaching a maximum altitude of 2510 m. A comprehensive range of scientific observations was effected en route. A support party of three men remained at the western edge of the ice cap for the summer to conduct meteorological and glaciological studies. Thereafter two of this group spent the winter of 1912–1913 at the Danish Arctic Station at Godhavn as guests of Morten Porsild to conduct aerological studies using pilot balloons and, to a lesser degree, captive balloons. All quotations in this paper are translated from the German by the author. This article is the first English-language account of de Quervain's expeditions.

The paper demonstrates how the evolution of international law on colonial and indigenous peoples, in particular evolving rights to sovereignty over natural resources, shaped the changing relationship between Greenland and the rest of the Danish Realm. Greenland today is in a unique position in international law, enjoying an extremely high degree of self-government. This paper explores the history, current status and future of Greenland through the lens of international law, to show how international obligations both colour its relationship with the Kingdom of Denmark and influence its approaches to resource development internally. It considers the invisibility of the Inuit population in the 1933 Eastern Greenland case that secured Danish sovereignty over the entire territory. It then turns to Denmark’s registration of Greenland as a non-self-governing territory (colony) in 1946 before Greenland’s-purported decolonisation in 1953 and the deficiencies of that process. In the second part of the 20th century, Denmark began to recognise the Greenland Inuit as an indigenous people before a gradual shift towards recognition of the Greenlanders as a people in international law, entitled to self-determination, including the right to permanent sovereignty over their natural resources. This peaked with the Self-Government Act of 2009. The paper will then go on to assess competing interpretations of the Self-Government Act of 2009 according to which the Greenland self-government is the relevant decision-making body for an increasing number of fields of competence including, since 1 January 2010, the governance of extractive industries. Some, including members of the Greenland self-government, argue that the Self-Government Act constitutes full implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP 2007), but this view is not universally shared. The paper also considers the status and rights of two Greenland minorities: the North Greenlanders (Inughuit) and the East Greenlanders, each of whom has distinct histories, experiences of colonisation, dialects (or languages) and cultural traditions. While the Kingdom of Denmark accepts the existence of only one indigenous people, namely, the Inuit of Greenland, this view is increasingly being challenged in international fora, including the UN human rights treaty bodies, as the two minorities are in some cases considered distinct indigenous peoples. Their current position in Greenland as well as in a future fully independent Greenland is examined, and the rights that they hold against the Greenland self-government as well as the Kingdom of Denmark explored. Greenland’s domestic regime for governance of non-renewable natural resources (principally mining and hydrocarbons) is briefly analysed and compared with international standards, with a particular emphasis on public participation. The paper assesses the extent to which it complies with the standards in key international instruments.

Few scientific observations have been made at Middle and Stoltenhoff Islands, small (ca 10 ha) islands off the north coast of Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha. We recorded vascular plants and numbers of breeding birds on both islands in December 2009. Despite being smaller and more isolated than Middle Island, Stoltenhoff supported more species of plants, including Cotula moseleyi, previously thought to be endemic to Nightingale Island. Only one alien plant was found, Sonchus oleraceus. Populations of two albatross species apparently have decreased by at least half over the last 40 years, presumably due to mortality at sea. Stoltenhoff probably has the least disturbed habitat in the Tristan group, and strict controls are needed to prevent accidental introductions by anyone going ashore.

In 2009, the Act on Greenland Self-Government was adopted. It recognises that “the people of Greenland is a people pursuant to international law with the right of self-determination”. Within this framework, the people of Greenland have gained significant control over their own affairs and the right to access to independence. Yet, the extent to which this framework ensures the right of self-determination in accordance with fundamental human rights can still be questioned. From a human rights perspective, the right of self-determination is not a one-time right. It is fundamental human right that applies in different contexts beyond decolonisation and which has implications not only for colonial countries and peoples but also for the population of all territories, including indigenous and minority groups. From this perspective, this contribution seeks to disentangle and analyse the different facets of self-determination in Greenland while considering the implications of the right based on the multifarious identity of the peoples living in the country as colonial people, citizens, indigenous and minority groups, including their claim to control mining resources.

Drawing on an ethnographic survey in Svalbard before and during the coronavirus outbreak, this commentary reflects on the multiple dimensions of fieldwork highlighted by the pandemic. Firstly, the cancellation of many field campaigns has revealed the decisive role of personnel inhabiting scientific bases in the maintenance of scientific activities in Svalbard. Automatic and remote-controlled instruments are autonomous only in appearance as the crucial phases of data acquisition often call for human presence. Secondly, airborne remote sensing can be perceived as a response to fill data gaps. Although embedded in a long history, the use of remote sensed data has taken on a new meaning in the context of the pandemic. Finally, the fact that several researchers endeavour to go to the field whatever the travel conditions underlines a certain need of being in Svalbard as well as limitations of science performed remotely.

On Christmas Eve 1923, the whaling factory ship Sir James Clark Ross, commanded by Captain Carl Anton Larsen and accompanied by five catchers, reached the front of the Ross Ice Shelf; these were the first whaling vessels to operate in the Ross Sea. They had been dispatched by the Norwegian whaling company Hvalfangeraktienselskapet Rosshavet, which had obtained a licence from the British government. For most of the 1923–24 season, Sir James Clark Ross occupied an uneasy anchorage in the deep waters of Discovery Inlet, a narrow embayment in the front of the Ross Ice Shelf, while her catchers pursued whales widely in the Ross Sea. During that first season they killed and processed 221 whales (211 blue whales and 10 fin whales), which yielded 17,300 barrels of oil. During the next decade, with the exception of the 1931–32 season, Sir James Clark Ross and two other factory ships operated by Rosshavet, C.A. Larsen and Sir James Clark Ross II, operated in the Ross Sea. From the 1926–27 season onwards these ships were joined by up to three other factory ships and their catchers, operated by other companies. During the decade 1923–33 the Rosshavet ships killed and processed 9122 whales in the Ross Sea sector, mainly in the open waters of the Ross Sea south of the pack-ice belt. Total harvest for all factory ships from the Ross Sea sector for the period was 18,238 whales (mainly blue whales) producing 1,490,948 barrels of oil. From 1924 onwards the Rosshavet catchers wintered in Paterson Inlet on Stewart Island, New Zealand, and from 1925 onwards a well-equipped shipyard, Kaipipi Shipyard, operated on Price Peninsula in Paterson Inlet to service the Rosshavet ships.

The indirect cause of death of the three members of the Andrée balloon expedition on White Island in early October 1897 was the ice drift during their attempted retreat after the forced landing at 82°56′N 29°52′E. They initially tried to reach Cape Flora to the southeast of their current position in the Arctic pack ice even though they could deduce from prior explorers’ experience that the expected long-term direction of the ice drift in the area would be to the southwest. However, when they finally turned towards the Seven Islands in the southwest, the ice unexpectedly began to drift in a southeasterly direction. In this paper, trigonometrical methods are used to derive more precise measures of the ice drift the expedition members actually experienced, based on their own position fixes and their own descriptions of their marches. The results confirm that they were exposed to a southwesterly ice drift, on average, during the weeks they were trying to head southeast, and to a southeasterly ice drift, on average, during the weeks they were trying to head southwest. Hence, the disastrous ending of the expedition was, at least to some extent, a result of bad luck.

The frigid geographical environment in the Arctic has shaped the exploration attribute of the polar cruise shipping network. In this study, the typical characteristics and special structure of the Arctic adventure cruise shipping network are investigated by using the network analysis method based on the data of 172 adventure cruise itineraries in the Arctic. It is found that the Arctic adventure cruise itineraries are dominated by 8–17 days of medium itineraries, and the ratio of one-way itineraries to round-trip itineraries is about 1:1. There are differences in the centrality of different ports, forming two core ports Reykjavík and Longyearbyen and a sub-core port Kangerlussuaq. The overall contact strength of the Arctic adventure cruise shipping network is low. Under the joint influence of such factors as centrality and contact strength, the Arctic constitutes the dual-core clusters of Iceland and Svalbard Islands and a sub-core cluster of Greenland.

In a voyage beginning 24 July in Ulsan, South Korea, and ending i n St Petersburg, Russia, on 21 September 1992, the icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov successfully completed an unassisted transit of the Northwest Passage, from Bering Strait to the North Atlantic Ocean. The ship was chartered jointly by Polar Schiffahrts-Consulting, Hamburg, Germany; Blyth and Company Travel, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and D.G. Wells Marine Ltd, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was marketed for tourists, some of whom traveled the entire distance of 14,120 nautical miles [26,150 km]. Khlebnikov was the fifty-third vessel to complete the Northwest Passage since Roald Amundsen first accomplished it in 1906 (Pullen and Swithinbank 1991, and confirmed by the office of Coast Guard Northern, Ottawa, Canada).

The Deh Cho Dene have been negotiating territorial land since early European settlement. This paper argues that the changing needs of Deh Cho Dene society has changed their concept of property and this transformation has evolved with a responsibility to conserve cultural practice and ecological balance in Deh Cho Dene territorial lands. The article considers how the changing need of European society addresses property and ownership in the context of basic human rights and consumer interests. It uses the theories of Macpherson, Locke, and Marx to construct a model to understand the property relations that exist in the Deh Cho Dene region. Accordingly, the paper addresses oral narratives to give historical insight into the relations between neighbouring tribal groups and their understanding of territorial boundaries. An account of present day negotiations highlights the various initiatives taken to protect traditional interests and uphold historical claim to the territory. The negotiation of joint ventures and property ownership has evolved with concerns over ecological sustainability and the protection of a subsistence lifestyle, which is critical for the social and economic interests of Deh Cho Dene culture, and is closely connected to the land.