Circumpolar Newsings
(Mads Dollerup-Scheibel/Sermitsiaq, 29 October 2009) -- Starting next month, the first bottles of Greenland spring water will start rolling of the production line the west coast town of Qeqertarsuaq. Greenland Springwater is currently putting the final touches on its tapping equipment and expects that 150,000 bottles of water from Lyngmark Spring will be shipped to retailers in Greenland and abroad in the coming months. Many of the bottles turned out in the start-up production phase have been distributed to the town's school and senior citizens' home. Once production officially gets underway, some 60,000 bottles of the initial production run will be sold in Greenland. The remaining bottles will be shipped to Switzerland and France. Greenland Springwater will also be sold on the German market, but because of laws there banning the sale of water in plastic bottles the company will ship water to Aalborg, Denmark, where it will be bottled in glass bottles and shipped south. After the 150,000 bottles have been filled, the factory intends to shut down for the winter while it works out the final details of distribution. It plans to open again permanently in the spring with an expanded staff.
Posted 1 November 2009; 11:29:12 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic and Commerce Issues, Greenland / Denmark, Resource Issues
Number of swine flu cases in Russia's Kamchatka rises to 54 
(RIA Novosti, 2 November 2009) --PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY - The number of people confirmed as having the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu, in Russia's Far East Kamchatka Territory has grown to 54, local health ministry spokesman said."Thirty seven children and 17 adults have been confirmed as having swine flu in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Elizovsky district," the spokesman said, adding 32 people had light infections and 22 were in a moderately grave condition. Thirty-five people were hospitalized, he said."We have enough medicine and places in hospitals," the spokesman added. The first case of swine flu infection was registered in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on October 21, three days after an infected 11-year-old boy was hospitalized. Five deaths from the H1N1 virus have been so far registered in Russia. Three fatalities were reported in the east Siberian city of Chita, one in Moscow, and another one in the Siberian Krasnoyarsk region. The total number of officially confirmed swine flu cases in the country has reached almost 1,900. Russia's chief sanitary official, Gennady Onishchenko, earlier said the swine flu cases began growing considerably in October, traditionally the time for a seasonal flu outbreak. The country plans to start a swine flu vaccination program in December. According to the World Health Organization, more than 5,700 people have died from swine flu worldwide, and the total number of officially confirmed cases has exceeded 440,000, as of October 25.
Posted 1 November 2009; 9:24:25 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Far East / Russia, Health and wellness, November09, Russia
Ptarmigan hunting season begins in Iceland
(Iceland Review, 30 October 2009) -- The ptarmigan hunting season begins this weekend but the weather forecast is not promising for the approximately 3,000 ptarmigan hunters headed for the wild; warm temperatures, overcast skies and rain is forecast for most parts of the country. The outlook is comparatively best for northeast Iceland. As in previous years, police will monitor hunting grounds, even though the current budget doesn’t allow extensive traveling. “We drive to the main hunting grounds and talk with the people we meet,” an unnamed duty officer in Húsavík told Morgunbladid. Police in Húsavík have already received reports of ptarmigan hunters who have cheated by starting early but police have not been able to track them down. Violations of hunting regulations, lack of gun licenses and hunting permits can result in a fine or loss of licenses and permits. Hunting is allowed during weekends until the beginning of December. Hunting permits cost ISK 3,000-7,000 (USD 24-56, EUR 15-35) per day. The Icelandic ptarmigan stock is recovering after hunting was banned for a few years. Ptarmigan is a popular Christmas dinner in Iceland. Click here to read more about the bird.
Posted 1 November 2009; 8:42:03 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Iceland, North Atlantic, October09
Canada, Nunavut and Greenland sign polar bear pact
(ENS, 30 October 2009) -- KANGERLUUSUAQ, Greenland - A polar bear conservation and management agreement between Greenland, Canada and Nunavut was signed today at Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. The pact caps months of work by all three parties to protect bears in hunting areas shared by the Canadian territory of Nunavut and Greenland, including Baffin Bay and Kane Basin. Canada is inhabited by 15,500 of the estimated 25,000 polar bears in global polar regions. Of the 13 polar bear subpopulations in Canada, those in the Kane Basin and Baffin Bay are shared exclusively between Nunavut and Greenland. Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice, Nunavut's Minister of the Environment Daniel Shewchuk, and Greenland's Minister of Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture Ane Hansen put their names to the Memorandum of Understanding aimed at ensuring the protection of these shared polar bear populations. The MOU proposes the creation of a Canada-Greenland joint commission that would recommend a combined total allowable harvest, and a fair division of the shared harvest. The joint commission also would be used to coordinate science, traditional knowledge, management and outreach activities. Environment Minister Prentice said, "The Government of Canada is committed to working collaboratively to protect one of Canada's true natural, and national, symbols." Prentice called the polar bear "an iconic animal, whose rare and rugged beauty stands as a stark reminder that Canada is one of the world's true Nordic nations." Earlier this year, Prentice hosted a National Roundtable on polar bears with the territories, the provinces, wildlife management boards and others who have a polar bear management and conservation role. At the meeting, the need to form an agreement on managing shared polar bear subpopulations was identified as a high priority. "The Memorandum of Understanding will help ensure conservation and sustainable management of Kane Basin and Baffin Bay polar bear populations into the future," Prentice said today.
Posted 1 November 2009; 8:34:13 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Greenland / Denmark, October09
More projects planned for Aleutians
(Anne Hillman, KUCB – Unalaska via APRN, 30 October 2009) -- Archaeologists are planning two new projects in the Aleutians for next summer to expand their knowledge of Aleut cultures both before and after Russian contact. [mp3]
Posted 1 November 2009; 8:22:59 PM. ann-20091030-06.mp3 Permalink
Tagged: Alaska, Circumpolar News, Expeditions, exploration, and field trips, North Pacific, October09, Research / Reports
EU wants stronger role in Arctic
(BarentsObserver, 30 October 2009) -- "The EU is an Arctic entity," EU Commission representative Fernando Garces highlighted in a seminar last week. He also reiterated the Commission’s desire for permanent observer status in the Arctic Council. Speaking in the seminar “Regional Cooperation for regional growth” in Murmansk last week, EU Commission representative Fernando Garces highlighted that the EU’s Communication on the Arctic from last year is a step in the process of making a comprehensive EU Arctic Policy. The EU has a lot to contribute with in the Arctic, he underlined, and added that it is about time that the Commission gets permanent observer status in the Arctic Council. As BarentsObserver has reported, the Arctic Council has so far turned down the Commission’s request for higher status. In his presentation, the commission representative also said that cross-border relations in the northernmost parts of Europe have a positive and pragmatic approach. As a matter of fact, cross-border relations in the High North can serve as a model for EU-Russia cooperation, the EU Commission representative maintained. "The further north, the better East-West relations," Garces said, admitting that other European regions should learn from the northerners. The Commission representative praised cooperation within the frames of Northern Dimension, the EU’s main cooperation instrument in the northernmost parts of Europe. He stressed that it has been a success to include Russia and Norway on equal terms in the Northern Dimension policy from 2006. He also said that he is happy to see current Russian progress in the signing of the joint EU-Russia CBC ENPI programmes–programmes which will become the backbone for East-West project cooperation in Europe. Mr. Garces, a representative of DG Relex, the EU’s foreign affairs body, had been invited to Murmansk by the North Norway, North Finland and North Sweden EU offices in Brussels, as well as the Norwegian Barents Secretariat.
Posted 1 November 2009; 6:07:11 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Europe, International, October09
It's officially winter in Lapland
(YLE, 30 October 2009) -- Winter has come to Finnish Lapland. According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, "thermal winter" began in Lapland at the end of October. By "thermal winter", meteorologists mean that the average round-the-clock temperature is now staying below the freezing point. October was unusually cold throughout Finland, but especially in southern Lapland and north-central parts of the country. Winter snow cover now extends from northern Lapland into central parts of the region, even though the area received less precipitation during October than any other part of the country. The lowest temperature recorded in October was -20.6 degrees Celsius, on the 12th of the month in Sodankylä. Up to 18cm of snow was measured on the ground at Saariselkä in the far north.
Posted 1 November 2009; 5:56:36 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Climate Change and Weather, Finland, October09
Greenland, Canada commit to polar bear protection
(RedOrbit, 31 October 2009) -- Canada and Greenland are taking steps to protect populations of polar bears that live between the two countries, officials announced on Friday. Canada's Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced this during a conference call after he signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) along with Greenland's Minister of Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture, Ane Hansen and Prentice's Nunavut territory representative Daniel Shewchuk. The deal suggests the writing of a partnered committee that would advocate a total yearly number of polar bears to be harvested and an equal separation of the hunt. Hunting polar bears has been illegal since 1973, but the Arctic's indigenous peoples do not follow this ban due to reverence of their traditions, regardless of scientists' oppositions over how the pelts have been separated. The committee will also align science, conventional information and outreach programs. "The government of Canada is committed to working collaboratively to protect one of Canada's true natural, and national, symbols. An iconic animal, whose rare and rugged beauty stands as a stark reminder that Canada is one of the world's true Nordic nations," Prentice stated. Hansen emphasized that it was "important that traditional knowledge is used together with science" in the development, as Shewchuk noted that the MOU "will help us make the wisest possible management decisions for our polar bear populations."
Posted 1 November 2009; 5:39:47 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar cooperation, Circumpolar News, Conservation and Wildlife, Flora and Fauna, Greenland / Denmark, International, October09, Resource Issues
Iceland bids farewell to McDonald’s
(Iceland Review, 29 October 2009) -- Icelanders evidently intend to give the McDonald’s fast food chain a heartfelt goodbye as people have been flocking to its three outlets in Reykjavík this week after it was announced on Monday that McDonald’s was closing shop in Iceland for good. “We have all been working as hard as we can. The average sale is 4,000 hamburgers a day but for the last few days we’ve sold at least twice as much,” managing director of McDonald’s Iceland Jón Gardar Ögmundsson told Morgunbladid. Ögmundsson said he believes that this heartfelt goodbye shows how big a share this international hamburger chain has in the national spirit. The reason McDonald’s is closing in Iceland is the rising prices of imported goods necessary for making the hamburgers. The operation isn’t profitable anymore and so a new fast food chain will open instead, which sells Icelandic hamburgers with Icelandic ingredients. McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Iceland in 1993. Now the last McDonald’s hamburgers in Iceland will be served on Saturday evening. Ögmundsson said in an earlier news story that the fast food chain is unlikely to reopen in Iceland even after the economy recovers. Click here to read more about this story.
Posted 1 November 2009; 4:47:56 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Economic issues, Iceland, North Atlantic, November09
Travel: Slice through miles of remote snowscape on Sweden's Kings' Trail
(Eliza Wilmerding/Dallas Morning News, 1 November 2009) -- ABISKO MOUNTAIN STATION, Sweden - Twelve miles into Sweden's King's Trail, we find our rhythm and tune in to the arctic snow. This singing powder is so dry you could swim in it and not get wet. There's no chance of it sticking to your skis – or to itself. (My snowball looked like a mass of sparkling confetti.) And in a few days, thanks to a drop in air temperature, we'll ski through reflective ice crystals tumbling out of the clear blue sky.We'd found our frozen world. It was everything that we could ask for.When my fiancé was offered a job in southern Sweden weeks before our fall wedding, we jumped at it. I'd read of Swedes lacing up their skates and carving down frozen canals or ski touring across the countryside outside their doors. We could live like that.Reality struck when we flew into perpetually spitting rain, then winter darkness and more rain. Searching for rubber boots in a Gothenburg shoe store, I met a fellow American. She asked if I'd be around through the winter. I nodded."You poor dear," she said. "Last year, we went crazy and had to go south for a break."For most people, it's a no-brainer to head to the tropics for winter vacation. We're wired differently. We like snow more than sand or saltwater. We went north to find a frozen world.
Posted 1 November 2009; 9:40:21 AM. Permalink
Tagged: Circumpolar News, Expeditions, exploration, and field trips, Nordic Region, November09, Sweden, Tourism / Perspectives
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