Spitsbergen Reading
The Arctic:
A Guide to Coastal Wildlife (2nd edition)
By Tony Soper, illustrated by Dan Powell; paper, 144 pp.
This is the “must-have” book to take with you on an Arctic cruise. It is small enough to put in the pocket of a parka or anorak, and large enough to include a good selection of the widespread birds and mammals (both land and marine). There are also brief entries for a few fishes, the invertebrates, and some distinctive plants of Svalbard and Greenland. The section on the history of the region is aptly entitled “Exploitation and Conservation”.
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Guide to Spitsbergen:Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, and Jan Mayen (3rd Edition)
By Andreas Umbreit; paper, 304 pp.
This book provides a wealth of information on the remarkable Svalbard archipelago which is generally called Spitsbergen outside Norway (it’s actually, the name of the largest island). It is aimed mainly at non-cruise visitors, and the contents range widely from purely practical matters such as how to get there, to details like accommodation, money, and clothing. But much of the book is concerned with history, conservation (which is taken very seriously), and safety (treating polar bears very seriously).
more || hide moreSpitsbergen/Svalbard is far north of the Arctic Circle, some 600 miles (966 km) from the North Pole, and the Midnight Sun lasts from 20 April to 26 August. It boasts the most northern university in the world, and hosts the recently established Global Seed Bank. Housed in a tunnel in the rock, this facility aims to store seeds of all the world’s crop varieties as a resource for the future. These precious seeds are stored behind high security blast-proof doors at a temperature of -18 degrees Centigrade.
This fascinating book also has short accounts of two neighbouring territories which are not normally visited by tourists – Jan Mayen, which belongs to Norway, and Franz Josef Land, which is Russian. Neither have any permanent inhabitants. The author is a longtime resident of Spitsbergen and is an authority on its complex history as well as its wildlife and wild places.
