Dispatches from the field

Jon Aars is a researcher with the Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway’s main institution for research, environmental monitoring and mapping of the polar regions. With the support of WWF, Aars studies polar bear populations on the Norwegian island of Svalbard. Read all of  his field notes from a Spring 2013 research expedition, and follow the bears […]

Jon Aars is a researcher with the Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway’s main institution for research, environmental monitoring and mapping of the polar regions. With the support of WWF, Aars studies polar bear populations on the Norwegian island of Svalbard. Read all of  his field notes from a Spring 2013 research expedition, and follow the bears […]

The narwhals have stopped transmitting signals.

The 4 narwhals still with working satellite transmitters are now spending most of their time towards the edge of the Canadian continental shelf, at the edge of Davis Strait, not far from the international boundary with Greenland.

Two of the narwhals have struck out fast along the coast, now off Auyittuq National Park in southeast Baffin Island.

With so much latent heat still in the water column, the Arctic sea ice is slow in reforming again this autumn. Our 4 narwhal with radio transmitters still working are moving fairly slowly SE along the North Baffin coastlines.

After six exciting weeks on board the Arctic Tern, the crew from the Last Ice Area exploration have finally arrived back on land.

After 2 months and 6,000 km, our research expedition to the Last Ice Area has ended safely in Pond Inlet, Nunavut.

The Sailing to Siku crew encounters a pod of narwhals.

After two nights at a sheltered anchorage in Strathcona Sound we ventured out once more, hoping that the winds in Admiralty Inlet had died down sufficiently for comfortable sailing. And indeed they had – the waves were much more subdued than when we’d attempted the passage a few days ago, upon leaving Arctic Bay.