Photo by Wolfgang Jürgen Lempe (Editor’s note: Story updated at 5:34 a.m. Tuesday with additional details, photos and videos) A fire early Monday morning near…
Posts tagged as “The Governor of Svalbard”
12 SNOWMOBILERS RESCUED FROM SEA ICE NEAR MOHNBUKTA: Tour group stranded on east coast due to surface water; all unharmed after rescue by governor’s helicopter
Photo of student researchers snowmobiling at Mohnbukta prior to this weekend by Richard Hann/UNIS
A group of 10 snowmobilers plus two Longyearbyen residents trying to help them were recused by helicopter after becoming stranded on the sea ice along the east coast of Svalbard near Mohnbukta due to large amounts of surface water, The Governor of Svalbard announced Saturday.
Officials with the governor’s office noted such areas can look deceptively safe for travel, but driving on the ice should be avoided under such conditions.
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Mark Sabbatini
SEAL OF DISAPPROVAL: Man fined 20,000 kroner, but avoids prison, for ‘incorrect’ explanation to police about shooting of a seal by another person at Svea
Photo courtesy of The Research Council of Norway
A man in his mid-20s has been sentenced to 14 days probation and fined 20,000 kroner for an “incorrect explanation to the police in connection with the illegal hunting of a bearded seal in Svea in June this year,” The Governor of Svalbard announced Friday.
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Mark Sabbatini
THE RULES OF ATTRACTION (ARE CHANGING): Norway’s gov’t rewriting Svalbard’s tourism regulations to more clearly define access, guide qualifications, customers’ rights and more
Photo of police contacting guides in the field courtesy of The Governor of Svalbard
“Getting away from it all” won’t be quite as much that in Svalbard soon as Norway’s government is planning a rewrite of tourism regulations for the archipelago that will likely include tighter control on access, new mandates for qualifying as a guide and changes in the legal rights of travellers that reflect higher standards on the mainland, according to a draft report released last week.
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Mark Sabbatini
SEAL OF DISAPPROVAL: Person fined 20,000 kr. for illegally shooting seal on ice near Svea; carcass abandoned at harbor
Photo by Geir Wing Gabrielsen / Norwegian Polar Institute
A person who illegally shot and killed a bearded seal last month on the sea ice near the shut-down Svea coal mine has been fined 20,000 kroner, according to The Governor of Svalbard.
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Mark Sabbatini
POLAR BEAR GOES SWIMMING NEAR LONGYEARBYEN: Bear goes ashore at Revneset on Saturday night, officials follow it by helicopter without taking action as it moves away from town
A polar bear came near Longyearbyen on Saturday night, taking a swim before going ashore at the cape across the bay on the west side of town, but officials from the governor’s office who responded by helicopter followed the bear as it moved away from town without need to sedate or take other protective measures.
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Mark Sabbatini
SVALBARD’S FIRST GENDER-NEUTRAL GOVERNOR: Lars Fause, former second-in-command, returns 10 years later to top spot with first-ever title of Sysselmester instead of Sysselmannen
New Svalbard Gov. Lars Fause watches sign master André Jenssen replace the administration’s building sign Thursday. Photo courtesy of The Governor of Svalbard.
Since this is an English-language newspaper, here’s the official announcement in Norwegian filtered through Google Translate: “On 1 July 2021, The Governor of Svalbard changes his name to The Governor of Svalbard.”
Yikes – and the “new title is the old title” gibberish isn’t even the worst part…officially. The worst is the reference to “his,” which Norway’s government now considers taboo because…well, sex is bad.
The upshot is Svalbard has a new boss with a new title.
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Mark Sabbatini
WOW…WALRUSES! BUT, PLEASE, BE WARY: Rare appearance by eight of the gregarious creatures at Hotelnesset draws crowd, but governor says some too close for comfort (and safety)
Photo by Elizabeth Bourne
Visiting cruise ship passengers are still absent from the harbor area of Longyearbyen this summer, but a different group of visitors Tuesday evening got almost certainly a more cherished welcome from locals as eight walruses made a rare disembarkation onto the shore at the edge of town.
But, as happens with cruise ship passengers, it turns out officials needed to issue a warning about proper interaction between humans and the environment as some of the former got too close to the latter.
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Mark Sabbatini
JOYLESS JOYRIDE: ATV stolen from Polar X near beach Sunday morning turns up at Svalbardbutikken; police seeking tips
Legally speaking, a rare vehicle theft in Longyearbyen when a multi-passenger ATV was reported missing early Sunday morning from Polar X at Sjøområdet. But the reason such thefts are rare is because it’s hard to actually steal and possess a vehicle since there’s no roads out of town to flee on, so police are seeking tips about the culprit after the ATV showed up a while later in the Svalbardbutikken parking lot.
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Mark Sabbatini
THEY’RE COMING FOR YOUR GUNS (IF YOU’RE BORROWING THEM): New law effective June 1 requires people to have a license for specific firearms they borrow from others
The ease of borrowing a gun from somebody in Svalbard, which basically just means telling the owner you’re fit to do so, will come to an end June 1 when a nationwide law requiring the borrower to have a permit specific to the type of weapons goes into effect.