A recently-discovered financial balance sheet, accounting for the first four years’ transactions of the Hull Whale Fishery Company (1754–1757), adds detail to present knowledge of British Arctic whaling economics during the early years of the industry. This article summarises previously-known information on the Company and its four ships, and provides transcripts of the balance sheet covering the profits and losses of the early voyages. Based on tabulated details from the transcripts, and additional data from Customs records and muster rolls, it discusses ships, crews, voyages, catches and expenses, the products of oil and baleen, and the profits derived from them. It makes brief comparisons with similar data from Bristol and Exeter in the formative years of the industry, and draws attention to the key significance of the 40 shilling (£2) bounty during the early years.

With the completion of a careful study of a photographic copy of the original notebook Frederick Cook kept on his attempt to reach the North Pole in 1908, now in Copenhagen, Denmark, many new details have been added that allow a more accurate account of his actual movements and timetable than has been possible previously. Because some records were altered or destroyed by Cook, however, a complete account still necessarily contains an element of speculation, which must be the case when based on the only records that exist of an unwitnessed assertion. But this uncertainty can be controlled to a reasonable degree by the notebook's remaining content in concert with the several other accounts Cook wrote of his expedition. One thing is sure, however: Cook was far behind his published timetable. At the outset, he set his start date back by one full week. He failed to report a number of delays in his journey and left out a lengthy detour that prevented him from reaching land's end at Cape Thomas Hubbard until well past 1 April 1908. This ruled out any chance to reach the North Pole in 1908. Frederick Cook was no fool; he was a veteran explorer. He knew any attempt that late in the season would be suicide. Furthermore his efforts to lay caches that would separate his own return route from that of his Inuit support party indicate that not only had he already given up the idea of making a serious attempt, but also that he was preparing for his eventual hoax of claiming to have reached the North Pole on 21 April 1908 long before he reached the Arctic Ocean.

This paper aims to show how the photography of Frederick A. Cook (1865–1940) played an important role in the making of his polar explorer-hero image. It considers portraits and Arctic and Antarctic photographs that Cook used in his own publications and illustrated lectures, and which he provided for press articles. The paper is underpinned by discourse analysis and the concept of the photograph as a representation of reality filtered through various lenses. The visual impact and discursive messages of the photographs were aimed at situating readers and audiences in responsive attitudes that would generate a public persona which he exploited to increase his fame and heroic reputation. In time, Cook's photography also played a critical part in the collapse of the hero image.

The small population of Weddell seals at Larsen Harbour, South Georgia, is isolated from the rest of the species and is unique because nearly all pups are born on land rather than on sea-ice. Observations of seals in Larsen Harbour during the breeding season are summarised. These have been infrequent until cruise ships started to visit. With often only a single observation in a year, accurate estimates of pup production are impossible but it appears that the population has decreased over the last three decades.

This note concerns the little known sub-Arctic operations in the Russo-Japanese war, 1904–1905. Apart from a slightly farcical ‘invasion’ of the Kamchatka peninsula by a group of Japanese fishermen, and a naval engagement off the coast of southern Sakhalin, the main operations related to the efficiently conducted Japanese invasion of the sub–Arctic island of Sakhalin itself. This was the only occupation of Russian territory during the war and was intended to strengthen the Japanese position in the peace negotiations, held at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that brought the war to a close.

Academic discussions around Inuit identity once focused on acculturation. These have mainly been replaced by concepts of adaptation to new living conditions. Yet, Inuit in the eastern Canadian Arctic still frame identity concerns around their land activities and are wary of becoming too much like ‘Qallunaat’ or southerners. This paper examines what material and non-material goods (for example psychological goods) Inuit seek from the land today in order to understand what traditional aspects of their relationships with the land persist and what new ones might have emerged recently. It then discusses the implications these have for Inuit identity. The study found a decrease in the procurement and use of material goods from the land compared with previous generations. Concomitantly, the acquisition of non-material goods has become more formalised and distinctly identified in discussions of land excursions. The non-material goods are clearly linked to Inuit ideology and traditions, rather than to southern ideas. The desire for, and acquisition of, non-material goods is developing both from a top-down or group consensus and bottom-up or individual decision, illustrating an interplay between the construction of group and individual identities in relation to the land. Inuit in the eastern Canadian Arctic are transforming their relationship with the land in a way that demonstrates an emerging identity as community Inuit who are rooted in their own local history and geography and also consciously subscribe to a larger Inuit culture that is premised on values such as sharing and building harmonious relationships.

The aim of this study is to investigate how reduction in the sea ice cover may affect oil activity in the Arctic during the next 30 years. The Arctic is divided into 21 oil provinces. A multidisciplinary approach is applied drawing on both the comparative cost techniques as developed in location theory and sea ice cover projections. The comparative cost technique implies a systematic listing of cost differentials by oil provinces. The sea ice projections are based on the NCAR CCSM3 global climate model under the A1B and A2 emission scenarios. The article concludes that the north Norwegian Sea, and south and west Barents Sea will remain the most attractive areas for oil exploration in the coming 30 years. Furthermore, due to sea ice decline, the north and east Barents Sea and north and west Kara Sea will become more attractive. However, most Arctic provinces will remain high cost regions.

The Arctic Council (AC) has been accorded the status of knowledge holder and knowledge provider for the Arctic region. This paper probes the broader definition-making power of Arctic knowledge, challenging the common notion that this knowledge is value neutral. It argues that attention should be paid to the ways in which power is exercised in, and though, the various reports and assessments published under the auspices of the AC. The specific focus of the paper is human development and gender as an aspect of that development. The research analyses the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR) in order to examine the ways in which knowledge defines human development and its agents in the Arctic. The paper draws on Foucault-inspired and feminist approaches to analyse three vocabularies of rule in particular: strength of the community, vulnerability and the need for adaptation. These vocabularies are coexistent and share an emphasis on communities. Yet, questions of gender seldom figure in them, a lack of salience that reveals the power of the partiality of knowledge. The politics of knowledge operate by placing in the foreground only certain accounts of Arctic development.

The objective of this research was to determine the number of people using the Ross Island recreational walking tracks, and to examine the relationships between the number of users, track morphological characteristics, and soil physiochemical properties. Infrared track counters provided 2-years of data on five walking tracks on the island. Track width and track incision were measured and soil sampling in the vicinity of the track counter and an adjacent control site was undertaken. Between January 2009 and January 2011 5084 passes were recorded on the Scott Base to McMurdo Station walking track, 2842 on the Wind Vane Hill walking track, 3561 on the Round Observation Hill walking track, 10936 on the Up Observation Hill track, and 693 on the Crater Hill summit walking track. There were more users on all tracks in the 2010–2011 summer season than the 2009–2010 summer season. The highest frequency of visitors occurred on Sundays during the summer (November to January). There was no relationship between the number of passes on the track and the measured impact indicators. This indicates that higher usage of a formed track had little cumulative impact. Track width and incision were related to the slope of the terrain, with tracks traversing flatter areas generally wider (R2 = 0.85) and less incised (R2 = 0.96), than those traversing steeper hillsides. There were no significant differences between tracks and control samples in soil pH, soil EC, organic C, total N, and total P. However, soil bulk density was higher in the walking tracks than adjacent control areas (p < 0.05).

In the summer of 2014 a major search was mounted in the Canadian Arctic for H.M.S. Erebus and Terror, the ships of Sir John Franklin's expedition, the aim of which was to make a transit of the northwest passage. Beset in the ice to the northwest of King William Island in the summer of 1846, they were abandoned there by the 105 surviving members of their crews in the summer of 1848. The officers and men hoped to walk south to the mouth of the Back River, presumably to ascend that river in the hope of reaching the nearest Hudson's Bay Company's post at Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake. None of them survived. The 2014 expedition, the Victoria Strait Expedition, mounted by a consortium which included Parks Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, the Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, the Arctic Research Foundation, and One Ocean Adventure, had four ships at its disposal including the Canadian Coast Guard's icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Captain Bill Noon) and the Navy's HMCS Kingston.

Climate change has been identified as compromising food security in many case studies with Inuit communities in Canada. Largely neglected in the scholarship however, is research focusing on the gendered dimensions of Inuit food security in a changing climate. This paper reports on a community based participatory research project involving semi-structured interviews with Inuit women (n = 42), 10 focus groups (n = 40), key informant interviews (n = 8), and participant observation, to identify and characterise the determinants of food security among Inuit females in the community of Arviat, and examine the role played by climate and climate change. Results indicate that significant changes in climate being observed are not currently affecting female food security, with socio-economic-cultural factors primary determinants of food security. The nature of the traditional food system in Arviat based on harvesting land mammals reduces sensitivity to changing sea ice conditions which have been problematic in other Inuit communities. However, dependence on a limited number of animals for diet (primarily caribou, arctic char) increases sensitivity to potential future disruptions caused by climate change to these species and reduces response diversity as a coping mechanism.

An account of G.R. De Wilde's contribution to Arctic photography is presented. His images from Sir Allen Young's 1875 voyage in Pandora are the earliest to be published from a British expedition, albeit in a volume that was privately printed.

An oil spill that occurred on 21 August 1944 near the Inupiat village of Barrow on Alaska's North Slope provides the focus for a brief history of activity in the face of extreme conditions and the evolving relationship of US Navy personnel and Inupiat natives of the region. The emotional recollections of an Inupiat elder are contrasted with the growing respect of the navy personnel for the Inupiat. The economic and social effects of oil explorations towards the end of World War II and the early post-war years are briefly discussed. These events form a part of the socio-economic background of current and proposed arctic oil development.

The present study was conducted to determine the elemental concentration and bacterial presence in the ocean on the two sides of Brøggerhalvøya, a peninsula in Svalbard. Sediments from 25 different locations were collected and subjected to elemental analysis using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). In total, 21 elements were analysed. The elements in their decreasing order of concentrations on the Kongsfjorden side of Brøggerhalvøya were Fe> Mn> Ba > V > Zn > Sr > Rb > Cr > Li > Ni > As > Pb > Cu > Co > Cs >Ag > Be > U> Bi >Tl > Cd while that for Forlandsendet side of Brøggerhalvøya they were Fe > Ba >Mn > V> Sr > Zn > Rb > Cr > Li > Ni > Pb > Cu > As > Co > Cs > Be > U> Tl > Bi > Cd. On the other hand, at a coastal outcrop, elements in their decreasing order of concentration were Fe > Mn > Cr > Sr > Ba > Rb > Cr > Zn > V > Rb > Ni > Li > Co > Cu > As > Pb > Cs > Be > Cd > Tl > U > Bi. AMS dates confirmed the age of outcrop sediment to be 12,496 to 42,500 BP. The crustal enrichment factor calculated for all the elements with reference to Fe values, demonstrates that the elements have derived from a crustal source. Total bacterial counts ranged from 3.30 × 105 to 3.02 × 106 per gm soil sediment. Culturable bacterial counts in these sediments were between 2.00 × 102 to 2.09 × 105 CFU's per gm. Overall comparison showed high Fe and Mn concentrations around Brøggerhalvøya, due to the presence of specific bacteria which play key roles in metal cycling and carry out biogeochemical transformations.

This note considers the latest iterations to the Arctic Council following the May 2013 ministerial meeting in Kiruna, Sweden. While new state observers including China and Japan were admitted, the European Union's application was deferred and the entire list of non-governmental and intergovernmental organisation applicants was rejected without consideration. Although time-based pressures may have been a factor, the failure to consider the non-state entities’ applications has the effect of reinforcing the impression that the Arctic Council is and will remain a state-centric body.

Richard Byrd claimed to have reached the North Pole in his 1926 flight, based mostly on his dead reckoning navigation. His technique of finding distance traveled from observations with a drift indicator can ideally be quite accurate, as shown by simulations of his dead reckoning with a navigation log. But under real-world conditions, especially those of Byrd's flight, significant errors can easily occur. Since we do not have a copy of Byrd's navigation log from the flight, we cannot assess such errors, and there is some evidence that Byrd did not keep a navigation log. However, that would not necessarily lead to less accurate dead reckoning.

The Armenian-Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky completed a painting of a polar seascape entitled Ledyanyye gory [Ice mountains] in 1870. The picture has usually been taken for an Antarctic scene depicting HIMS Mirnyi, one of the two ships of the Russian Antarctic Expedition of 1819–1821, in the presence of icebergs, ice cliffs and floes. The author contends, first, that this identification is open to considerable doubt, and second, that other aspects of the painting are also problematic. The painting is in the Aivazovsky Museum in Ukraine. The Museum kindly supplied him with high resolution photographs of the painting but personal scrutiny has proved impossible hitherto. Further research, especially into Aivazovsky's papers, might resolve some of the questions which it raises.