As part of the AT207-pollution in the Arctic course, we went on a field trip to “Svea” for 5 days. Svea is a small mining village and it is the largest working mine on Svalbard. To get to Svea, we went by a small plane (used to transport the miners to work)- this was by far the second best part of the trip because the plane is really low and everyone got a window seat so we got to see all the glaciers and mountains on the way over. The first best thing about the trip was getting to see a polar bear!!! (I’ll get back to that later)
Our field work involved us doing soil spills on the beach and finding out how quickly they dispersed. When we arrived we had to get straight to work on the beach, this took a few hours and we didn’t get our dinner in till 11 at night! The next day we got split up into groups and got given jobs to do. My first job was polar bear watch!... I really don’t know why I got landed doing it because I can’t aim very well!! When I was standing on the highest point to get a good view my lecturer came up to me and asked “what would you do if a polar bear came right no?” I said I would shoot it and he asked “with what?”… I then realised I had been on polar bear watch with no ammo!! Woops!! Surprisingly he let me go on guard again the next day… god knows why!!
During the last few days of the trip we got told that there were three polar bears in the area and we had to be very careful. On Thursday night, another group had to go out late at night to take samples and they were greeted with a polar bear, it was far enough away for them to make it to the car without too much harm, but they were all very shaky when they got back! I wanted to get the car out to look for it but my lecturer said no and took the car keys to bed with him! The polar bear then went up onto the hill behind where we were staying and we all got a chance to see it. It was really far away so it was only a small white dot on the hill without the binoculars! Even still, this actually made my whole trip! :D
On the last night, we had a really fancy meal and some wine! This was a brilliant way to end the trip and we could all relax after our hard work! On the last day there wasn’t enough room on the flight home so two people from my barrack and me had to stay behind with a rifle and entertain ourselves for a few hours! We got access into the miners café, which was really cool because we got lots of nice food and a massive wide-screen tv! We went for a short hike up to one of the old mines as well but not too far as we were a bit scared the polar bear would find us!
Our field work involved us doing soil spills on the beach and finding out how quickly they dispersed. When we arrived we had to get straight to work on the beach, this took a few hours and we didn’t get our dinner in till 11 at night! The next day we got split up into groups and got given jobs to do. My first job was polar bear watch!... I really don’t know why I got landed doing it because I can’t aim very well!! When I was standing on the highest point to get a good view my lecturer came up to me and asked “what would you do if a polar bear came right no?” I said I would shoot it and he asked “with what?”… I then realised I had been on polar bear watch with no ammo!! Woops!! Surprisingly he let me go on guard again the next day… god knows why!!During the last few days of the trip we got told that there were three polar bears in the area and we had to be very careful. On Thursday night, another group had to go out late at night to take samples and they were greeted with a polar bear, it was far enough away for them to make it to the car without too much harm, but they were all very shaky when they got back! I wanted to get the car out to look for it but my lecturer said no and took the car keys to bed with him! The polar bear then went up onto the hill behind where we were staying and we all got a chance to see it. It was really far away so it was only a small white dot on the hill without the binoculars! Even still, this actually made my whole trip! :D
On the last night, we had a really fancy meal and some wine! This was a brilliant way to end the trip and we could all relax after our hard work! On the last day there wasn’t enough room on the flight home so two people from my barrack and me had to stay behind with a rifle and entertain ourselves for a few hours! We got access into the miners café, which was really cool because we got lots of nice food and a massive wide-screen tv! We went for a short hike up to one of the old mines as well but not too far as we were a bit scared the polar bear would find us!
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