EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Ships Across the Fjords

Isfjorden ("Ice Fjord")
Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway

Explanation:  Nearly at 80 degrees north latitude, we are casting a view across Norway's "Ice Fjord" on the remote Norwegian arctic archipelago of Svalbard.  Distant glaciers pour out of the mountains into the fjords of Nordre Isjorden National Park.  

This landscape, this seascape, is pristine.

But is under stress.

A regionally warming climate is reducing sea ice and is causing recessions of glaciers in the fjords of this arctic wilderness.  

And that, in turn, is enticing increasing traffic of ships -- commercial, industrial, and tourist ships alike.

Ship traffic in Svalbard is unique; no where else in the world do cruise ships with nearly four thousand passengers travel this far north.  Along with tourist ships are cargo, research, and fishing vessels.  Increased traffic of all marine transports means increased safety hazards such as ship groundings, capture by sea ice, and collisions.  

 
Moreover, it is the great increase in tourism that can put undue stress and strain on marine and terrestrial wildlife, disturbing feeding grounds of marine mammals including polar bears, and nesting and breeding sites of seabirds, foxes, and other species on land.

Only by studying direct and indirect impacts, and administratively monitoring and regulating ship and tourism numbers and access, can future major disturbances to this unique ecosystem be averted.  

  
Information:
     Holmgaard, S.B., A.E. Thuestad, E.R. Myrvoll, and S. Barlindhaug.  2019.  Monitoring and managing human stressors to coastal cultural heritage in Svalbard.  Humanities 8(1):21, https://doi.org/10.3390/h8010021.
     Madsen, J., I. Tombre, and N.E. Eide.  2009.  Effects of disturbance on geese in Svalbard: implications for regulating increasing tourism.  Polar Research 28(3):376-389.
     Storrie, L., C. Lydersen, M. Andersen, R.B. Wynn, and K.M. Kovacs.  2018.  Determining the species assemblage and habitat use of cetaceans in the Svalbard Archipelago, based on observations from 2002 to 2014.  Polar Research 37(1):art. no. 1463065.
     Van Bets, L.K.J., M.A.J. Lamers, and J.P.M. van Tatenhove.  2017.  Collective self-governance in a marine community: expedition cruise tourism at Svalbard.  Journal of Sustainable Tourism 25(11):1583-1599.