ALERT – POLAR BEAR REPORTED IN ADVENTDALEN NEAR EDGE OF TOWN
By Mark Sabbatini on January 1, 2020
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A polar bear seen about 500 meters from Svalbard Snøscooterutleie just after midnight is being sought out by officials at the entrance to Adventdalen and across the channel from Longyearbyen. The road into Adventdalen was briefly closed, but officials said it was last seen moving away from the edge of town.
A polar bear, seen at lower left, is spotted near the east edge of Longyearbyen is located by a helicopter crew and other officials at Hiorthamn on the shore across the bay from town early Wednesday morning. Photo by Sophie Cordon.
The Governor of Svalbard received a report about the bear at 12:02 a.m. Wednesday from a person who saw the animal, according to police at the scene. It is not known if it is the same bear that has wandered into town twice and lingered in the cabin area near the airport since Thursday.
“A polar bear and polar bear tracks have been observed in the Hiorthhamn – Isdammen area,” a statement issued by the governor at about 12:45 a.m. noted. “The governor is out with all available crew and helicopter. The governor asks people not to visit the area and be very careful when traveling outside.”
The governor is hoping to chase the bear northwest past the cabin area Hiorthhamn, where numerous people are now, toward Revneset,
This story will be updated with details as they are available.
I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation.
Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads.
But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation.
Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads.
But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
Icepeople is again facing an immediate existential crisis due (of course) to hardships largely inflected by the pandemic. In short, 1) the website needs $22 U.S. (190 NOK) to stay online for another month and 2) the editor needs any and all help possible to avoid homelessness in the middle of polar winter (not that it’s legal here any other time of the year).
So if you appreciate Icepeople for its unique stories about Svalbard and/or critical news during these critical times, as well as its features about the more colorful aspects of life here (today’s feature about the upcoming Polarjazz festival is for the event that first drew our editor’s attention to Svalbard way back in 2008) please do whatever you can during what are admittedly incredibly harsh times for many.
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