Svalbard expedition animals news update

This video says about itself:

15 November 2012

Extremely Rare White Whale Spotted Off The Coast Of Spitsbergen

Translated from a blog post today by Ms Liesbeth Noor, a participant in the big Dutch Svalbard expedition:

The first day [near Edgeøya island] (last Thursday, August 20th), we immediately spotted a polar bear (from the ship and far away), which meant we were not allowed to land. In the afternoon there was a number of whales in sight, fin, humpback and sei whale. Two came quite close, the rest you had to see with binoculars.

I’ve on Friday joined a day of field work by the team of archaeologists. That meant taking sand samples around a hut of Pomors. Those were Russian seafarers around 200 years ago who had a cabin on the west coast of Edgeøya (just around the corner from where the four Dutch students wintered in 1968, three of these gentlemen are with us now too).

Translated from a blog post by participant Nienke Beintema, about 21 August 2015:

Some researchers counted the seals and collected their droppings. Others took water samples. …

Brünnich’s guillemots overhead, pink-footed geese, a pomarine skua.

Translated from a blog post by Nienke Beintema, about 20 August 2015:

And beneath flat rocks [on the east coast of Spitsbergen island], the scientists found a dozen species of mites and springtails. Which are preserved for genetic research. Are these the same species as on the warmer west coast of Spitsbergen?