Scientific expedition studies tourism potential on Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land

ARKHANGELSK, August 19. /TASS/. Scientists during an expedition onboard the Akademik Sergey Vavilov research vessel assessed the tourist potential of the Arctic archipelagos Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land (FJL). The expedition results will be used to develop new sites, where t tourists will go ashore, and ecology trails on the islands, the Russian Arctic National Park’s Director Alexander Kirilov told TASS. "We took pictures of the area. The specialists took images of promising sites for disembarking tourists in order to create detailed schemes with altitude scales. Topographic works were carried out at the disembarking sites. We have projects to improve existing sites, ecology trails; and now, using the modern topographic references, we will upgrade them further on," Kirilov said. The expedition featured specialists of the National Park, experts of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (the Russian Academy of Sciences). They monitored the islands’ biodiversity, assessed the human impact on the polar ecosystems, and also studied the places which could be most attractive for tourists, and options to minimize the consequent impact on the Arctic nature. The expedition had to change the initial route due to the ice and fog conditions. They did not make it to the Graham Bell Island in the southern part of Franz Josef Land or the Rudolf Island - the archipelago’s northernmost island, he continued. In addition, the usual site, where visitors go ashore in Severnaya Bay on the Alexandra Land was clogged with ice, and the expedition members had to go ashore in a different place. Most interesting islands The Akademik Sergey Vavilov sailed to the Hooker Island, where the national park has the Tikhaya Bay base. Some call it FJL’s capital, since in recent years all cruise ships have been calling at this point. On August 30, 1929, the first Tikhaya Bay polar station was opened on the Hooker Island. Practically all its buildings have survived. Normally, the national park’s staff from June to September stays permanently at the base on the Hooker Island, but in 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID restrictions, no one lived there. "This year and last year, no one stayed constantly at Tikhaya Bay, but every cruise visitor comes there; we continue minimal works there, thus it is not abandoned," the national park’s director said. "We have analyzed its conditions, everything is fine." The expedition visited Cape Flora on the West Northbrook Island, which is home for several historical monuments of the Arctic’s development history. The island is known for rich vegetation. The cape is literally green, and probably this is why in 1880 Benjamin Lee Smith gave to it the name Flora. The cape’s territory is very swampy, the soil cover is easily damaged, so only limited tourists could be allowed there. The expedition also examined locations for possible disembarking of tourists on the islands Heiss, Champ and Jackson. In 1957, on the Heiss Island, the Soviet Union opened the Druzhnaya geophysical polar observatory, which since 1972 is named after Ernst Krenkel. A well-preserved village remains there nowadays. The Champ Island is known for giant stone balls, and on Cape Norway of the Jackson Island there are remains of a camp where Norwegians Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen spent the winter of 1895-1896. On the Alger Island, the experts examined the Ziegler Camp’s conditions. It was a base and food warehouse of Evelyn Baldwin’s expedition. Nowadays it is one of the best preserved historical monuments on Franz Josef Land. It is located on a sandy beach, which, due to climate changes in the Arctic, is being destroyed by the surf, and a part of the Camp is in the area, where the coast line has been collapsing. "This year, we do not see strong coastal erosion, perhaps the erosion rate has slowed down," Kirilov said. "The monument is not suffering yet." On Novaya Zemlya, the expedition worked at Cape Zhelaniya on the northern tip of the Severny Island and in Russkaya Gavan Bay. The border between the Barents and the Kara Seas runs along Cape Zhelaniya. There remain buildings of the hydrometeorological station, founded in 1931, and WWII fortifications plus the northernmost lighthouse in the country. Cape Zhelaniya is a most promising point for development of tourism in the Russian Arctic. In Russkaya Gavan Bay remain buildings of a polar station, and nearby is the Shokalsky glacier, which height reaches up to 20 meters. The weather conditions were favorable, and the experts could go ashore on the Aran Islands to observe a walrus rookery. Petroleum products studies On the Heiss Island and the Alexandra Land, the scientists took soil samples to test them for petroleum products. In 2012-2017, a cleanup mission was organized there. During the Clean Arctic joint project with Rosneft and the National Park, the researchers examined how petroleum products migrate inside the Arctic soils. The project began in 2019 and continued in 2020. "On the Heiss Island, we took samples of the seasonally thawing layer and a few samples from the permafrost’s upper part. On the Alexandra Land, we worked on a rocky site, and took samples off the surface," Dmitry Kryukov, the Clean Arctic project’s leader, told TASS. "Experts will analyze concentration of petroleum products in the soils to compare results with rates from previous years. Since 2012, more than 45,000 tonnes of waste have been removed from the FJL. According to a geo-ecological survey, conducted in 2017, the cleaning was completed by approximately 89%. Works have been practically completed on the islands Alexandra Land, Hooker, Heiss and Graham Bell. Cleanup still needs to be organized on the Rudolf and Hofmann Islands. Artist in the Arctic An artist, Elizaveta Schneider, a student of the Russian Hydrometeorological University (St. Petersburg), participated in the expedition. She takes part in the university’s educational and artistic project - Arctic Exploration History. When the team went ashore, she was making sketches. "I’ve made sketches, worked in watercolors, the total of about a hundred (works)," she told TASS. "I took photos to capture everything as much as possible, and to memorize everything, because the camera cannot show all the colors, all the tones, which I observed there. I want to make pictures, including in oil. We were lucky to see a bear on an ice floe and even a bear mom with a cub who were eating a seal. People, who often visit the Arctic, explained to me, those were very rare scenes, and we were happy to watch them." The University’s head of the Decorative and Applied Arts and Restoration of Paintings Department Natalia Reginskaya told TASS that the girl’s works will be used to teach other students. "They are all about the North, and we learn and discuss everything happening in the Arctic and in the northern lands," she added. "I think, we will do something monumental by the New Year, will make maybe about 80 paintings." The Russian Arctic National Park is Eurasia’s northernmost and Russia’s biggest nature reserve. It includes the Franz Josef Land archipelago and the northern part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Read more