RUSSIAN HARBOR BAY, July 9. /TASS/. The Arctic Floating University expedition started work in the Russian Harbor Bay on the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago's Severny Island, a TASS correspondent reported from aboard the Professor Molchanov research vessel.

Near the Shokalsky glacier, the group met a polar bear and paused going ashore for some time. The bear was walking along the ice edge and did not react to people. On the way back to the bay, where boats were picking up the researchers, the expedition participants met a pair of reindeer. A subspecies of wild reindeer, listed in Russia's Red Data Book, lives on the Severny Island of Novaya Zemlya. The animals, the expedition met, were practically of white color.

The Norwegians named the bay in 1869-71 in honor of Russian seafarers and industrialists who had traveled to those places from the 15th - 16th centuries. The Pomors' ancient crosses remained there in the late 19th century, and were lost later on. In 1932, the Russian Harbor settlement and a polar station were founded in the bay. The polar station's buildings have been preserved to this day, like the pier at the polar station.

Nowadays, the station is abandoned.

Marine litter and bird studies

Near the Russian Harbor station, a group of marine litter researchers collected two standard bags of plastic and glass waste.

"Marine litter was collected at a landfill of 100 meters long. The Russian Harbor has a large amount of glass, the bay is closed, and the glass waste is the waste from the station. In addition, on the beach there is waste typical for high-latitude islands of the Barents Sea: fragments of nets, ropes, floats, that is, waste from fishing vessels," the expedition's deputy leader Anna Trofimova told TASS.

Some unusual finds were several rubber boots, a respirator and an absolutely unbroken glass in the surf. The landfill near the Russian Harbor pier has been a monitoring site since 2018. "We were lucky to be able to work here," she added.

A group of ornithologists and microbiologists went ashore on the Bogatyi Island, located in the Russian Harbor Bay. An inscription on the ancient cross reads that the island was named in 1927 by the expedition of the Institute for the North Studies, led by Rudolf Samoilovich. The island has rocky, steep shores with numerous bird rookeries.

Arctic Floating University - 2024

On June 25, the Arctic Floating University departed from Arkhangelsk to conduct research in the White and Barents Seas, on the Kolguev Island, on islands of Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land.

The project's partners and sponsors are the Arkhangelsk Region's government, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Russian Geographical Society, VTB Bank, Norilsk Nickel, Roshydromet (the hydrometeorology service), the Russian Arctic National Park, the Floating University Coordination Center at MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; also known as PhysTech), the Nauka (Science) year-round youth educational center.

The Arctic Floating University's expeditions continue under the Science and Universities national project, implemented by Russia's Ministry of Science and Higher Education.