Day 634 - Longyearbyen
Managing Polar Bears
During our second day, I planned to hike to the seed bank, but was told I need to take a rifle. This was protection from Polar Bears that often roam the area. I said that would be a bad idea. I’d probably end up shooting myself in my foot. My brother-in-law, Chris is a hunter and he said, “You don’t want to mess with polar bears. You don’t hunt polar bears. Polar bears hunt YOU. So we took a bus to the seed bank, something I had been curious about since I learned of it. There’s not much to see. We were lucky to find it open with a fresh supply of seeds from India and Africa coming in.
The reason Svalbard’s few towns exist is because the islands are filled with high grade goal. Norway has closed most of the mines but you see the evidence of the massive mining that used to take place in what remains of the infrastructure-the supports that held cranes that hauled coal out of the mines and through the air on great cables.
Elsewhere on Svalbard Russia still owns a mine and the city of Pyramiden, built as an example of a perfect Soviet City in the 1950s. Now it’s a kind of living museum and tourist attraction. You can only get there by ship and none was available while we were there.
By the way, a great polar museum located here. More on that in later dispatches.
