MOSCOW, June 19. /TASS/. The Team of the Arctic student corps on June 10 wrapped up a "great Arctic cleanup," which continued since May 24, Deputy President of the MIREA Russian Technological University Igor Tarasov told TASS.
"Twenty volunteers from Russia's different regions, divided into four teams, have worked at the Zimnegorsky Lighthouse, the Morzhovets Island, Cape Kanin and the Kolguev Island. The expedition participants were delivered from Arkhangelsk to the Arctic and back by Roshydromet's Mikhail Somov scientific expedition vessel," he said.
The expedition has completed fully the planned works. "They have collected and accumulated about 150 tons of waste, including more than 500 barrels," he said.
Polar bears and an abnormally long winter
Cleaning the remote Arctic territory from waste, accumulated there over many years, is not an easy task, he continued. "Additionally, this year, the work was complicated by an abnormally long winter. Especially on the Kolguev Island and on Cape Kanin, where a stable snow cover remained for long, and temperatures wouldn’t go above zero. Shovels were the main tools the volunteers were using during the first days - they had to dig out everything from under the snow," he noted.
It was also time-consuming to settle there - to move into long-abandoned houses, to start stoves, to do cleaning, to connect electricity.
According to Artyom Smolokurov of the center Together We Are Stronger, at the first location - the Zimnegorsky Lighthouse - the expedition equipped a helipad, dismantled two old sheds and took care of the local cemetery.
"The most remote cleanup location was the Kolguev Severny weather station," he said. "The cleaning was complicated by the stable snow cover as well as by the presence of polar bears. The volunteers have observed five polar bears, and those occasions required special security measures," he noted.
What has been done
According to Smolokurov, they have collected 170 rusty barrels and 25 bags of waste at the Zimnegorsky Lighthouse. In order to transport the waste, the expedition members set up a trail, cutting through the undergrowth with a chainsaw and a sledgehammer.
On the Morzhovets Island, the Team of the Arctic began the work from cleaning a household landfill. They have collected two bags of glass waste and empty cans. "They filled twenty-three bags with scrap ferrous metal, various parts of old mechanisms, pipes <...>. The second point for waste evacuation is located on the coast, and there are more than 80 barrels, about 100 barrels have been collected totally," he said.
The snow remained on Cape Kanin till the very end of the expedition. At the first location there, the volunteers collected bags with broken glass, household garbage, and small waste, and at the second - 15 bags with heavy iron scrap (all-terrain vehicle rollers, engines, frames) and 43 barrels, some of them with spent fuel.
On the Kolguev Island, the volunteers have collected 205 barrels and 42 empty gas cylinders scattered across the territory, and removed waste from a household landfill.
They sampled water and soil, conducted various water tests for microplastics and chemical composition, Tarasov added.
"Significant accumulations of household and large-sized iron debris have been recorded everywhere, which means that the great Arctic cleanup should continue," he stressed.
The first voyage after the repair
The Mikhail Somov has completed the first voyage this year and the first voyage after the repair. According to Sevhydromet, the vessel has delivered almost 600 tons of vital cargo to 20 polar stations of Roshydromet's Northern and Murmansk departments on the coasts and islands of the White and Barents Seas. Food, firewood, diesel fuel, gasoline, coal, building materials, and aerology supplies have been brought to the stations, the organization told TASS.
Sevhydromet's ocean studies specialists have inspected how marine coastal observations were organized at the hydrometeorological stations.
Sevhydromet's head, Roman Ershov, told TASS the Mikhail Somov's next voyage was due in late June - to deliver cargo to stations in the White, Barents and Kara Seas.
The plan is that during 2024, the Mikhail Somov will make three voyages to Roshydroment's remote meteorology stations.
During a voyage to the Arctic in 2023, on July 24, the Mikhail Somov ran aground in the waters of Franz Josef Land, and left the area on August 8. The vessel's hull damages have been repaired.