SAMS Students in the Arctic 2016/17

On the 31^st of March, we took another snowmobile trip, this time to Barentsburg, the biggest Russian city on the island. We went there for our Environmental Management course, in order to see what the Russian view of the management of Svalbard is. The original plan was to meet with the Russian consul general, but unfortunately he was not available at the time we went. So plan B was to go and visit the Russian research centre, in order to see the differences with UNIS and to see what research they were up to. Again, there seemed to be no one there when we went. Elusive, these guys!

What we did get (as intended) was a guided tour of the town. It used to be a large town with around 2000 inhabitants, their own chicken coop, pig sties and everything. But ever since the 80’s and 90’s, it has gradually lost inhabitants, and now only has a population of around 350. It honestly feels like a ghost town. We visited the gymnasium, which was old and dusty – but was still in use. The Lonyearbyen sport teams frequently have matches against the Barentsburg ones. Although when we went, we must have seen like 4 people, tops. Then, we took a trip to the library, and there was not a soul there. It was very eerie.

Our professor also organised two activities for us, but I can’t say much about the first one, because it's supposed to be a surprise, and I wouldn't want to ruin it for next year's SAMS students 😉.
The other activity was a Svalbard jeopardy, about the diplomatic relationships around the management of the island, and how informal diplomacy is the more important form of diplomacy.

On the way back from Barentsburg, we stopped at the settlement in Cole’s bay, an abandoned Russian settlement. We had a packed lunch provided by the Barentsburg hotel. 

All that remains of the settlement is the actual buildings. It was really cool to be able to visit them,a nd to see the conditions that people lived in! To think that people used to live in settlements like this, and overwinter when the fjord still froze over, so without connection to the outside world… They were very brave.

Alright, that's all for now! I have an exam later this week, so I should keep studying.

Next update will probably come after our cruise (which ends mid May). There should be some great pictures... and if we're lucky a polar bear or two 😃

See you then!

Ivan

Hey everyone!

On the 8^th of March, we took  a snowmobile trip to Sveagruva, a mining town around 60 kilometres away from UNIS. The reason we went there is because it is on Van Mijenfjorden, one of the few fjords on the west coast that still get good, healthy annual sea ice. The point of the trip was to learn the techniques for sampling on sea ice, as well as to actually collect samples (that we later looked at in class). 

At first, we weren’t really sure we were going to be able to go, because there was terrible weather the day before, which resulted in a higher risk of avalanches on the way. But in the end, the Logistics Department at UNIS decided it was safe. And we’re lucky we went! It was an absolutely fabulous day, and we saw the first real sun since we had gotten to Svalbard! I had forgotten what it was like to have a shadow.

On the actual ice, before we began sampling, we had to designate two polar bear guards – they didn’t actually participate in the sampling. Rather, they had binoculars and a rifle, and looked out for any bears. Because sea ice is where ringed seals spend their spring to breed, and polar bears love a good seal dinner, there was much higher chance of an encounter, so we had to be on the lookout.

For the actual sampling, we made holes in the ice, in order to lower plankton nets and Niskin bottles (basically, big containers that can take a sample of the water at a desired depth). We also took ice cores in order to take samples of the ice community (algae, small animals, etc.) as well as to measure the physical characteristics of the ice.

Overall, it was a very successful day! Here’s a few pictures I took. 

That was our adventure on the ice. Hopefully, we'll have more on the cruise coming up in May.

See you later!

Ivan

Hi everyone!

Wow, it’s been a while since this has been updated. Alright, I’m probably going to do 2-3 posts in a row, because there’s a lot that happened.

So, all the way back in mid-February, we actually had quite a few really interesting classes. One of them was with Tavis Potts (formerly from SAMS!), who thought us in our environmental management course. His lectures were about international law, and how it is developed. Of course, that can sound boring if you hear it put like that, but Tavis added an interactive element to his teaching that made it much more interesting: a roleplay! 

In this activity, we had to come up with a plan for the development of the Barents Sea – should it continue to be developed as a new oil and gas production area? Should the fisheries be closed? Should it become a protected area due to its ecological significance?

We were put into groups of 2 or 3, and had to roleplay as one of the interested actors in this decision (Norway, Russia, some environmental NGOs, oil and gas companies, indigenous people, etc.). In the one day of workshop, we had opening statements, where everyone stated their desired intent, a coffee break (the time where everyone had to pass deals with everyone else) and finally the writing session, where we all contributed to writing the plan – and possibly broke some deals we had come up with in the coffee break!

Solène and I were representing Norway with a friend of ours. At first, we wanted to represent the oil and gas companies because it sounded interesting to finally be on the other side of the issue, and advocating for these companies. But when our turn came to choose, only the Norwegian government was still free. Actually, representing Norway was fascinating. As a country in which : 

You can imagine that Norway’s position is very delicate. But it’s kind of sad that many officials think that the way to advance the economy is to open new oil exploration areas, and not to focus on development of green, renewable energy sources – especially in a country where so much of the youth seems against oil drilling (or maybe that’s just the impression I’m getting because of the type of people who would want to come to Svalbard?). I think, in the end, we decided, with Russia, that new oil fields would have to be opened in the Barents Sea (while simultaneously promising to the environmental NGOs that we would open some protected areas… although we didn’t say anything about size, hehehe…).

Anyway, this was a very interesting two days about international law. Seeing the complexity of coming up with an international agreement on just the Barents Sea, it really gives perspective and respect for all the negotiators in international agreements. I mean, the fact that they actually managed to come up with a Paris Agreement is baffling, considering the number of actors involved.

That same week, in our other course (Marine Biology), we also dissected some fish! Mostly, it was Atlantic cod, but we also got to do a flatfish. In the dissection, the aim was to get all the organs out as untouched as possible, so we could weigh some of them (stomach and liver, for example). We also had a look at some zooplanktonic organisms, like amphipods and copepods. But I won’t go into the details: I think here, the pictures tell a better story (all of these were taken by Solène).