TASS, July 1. Volunteers of the Clean Arctic project left on an expedition to the Heiss Island, where they will spend about a month to collect prepare for further transportation to the mainland waste and scrap metal. From Arkhangelsk to the Franz Josef Land Archipelago the four people will be taken by the Mikhail Somov RSV, and a helicopter will take them to the island, the Clean Arctic project’s press service said on Friday.
"The voyage onboard Roshydromet’s vessel to the Franz Josef Land Archipelago will be eleven days long," the press service quoted the Arkhangelsk Region’s Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry Kirill Shapovalov as saying. "During the voyage, the volunteers will visit meteorology stations, will take ashore equipment for the Arctic research stations’ upgrade. After they reach the archipelago, a helicopter will take the ecology team to the Heiss Island, where they will spend about four weeks."
"The volunteers will collect and prepare for transportation to the mainland waste and scrap metal," the official continued. "Additionally, they will sample water in the Arctic Ocean and Lake Kosmicheskoye for scientists to study microplastics in the water reservoirs."
Groups of volunteers not only remove from Arctic territories the waste accumulated from the Soviet times, but promote the regional tourist potential, drawing attention of a large number of people from all over the country. "The response to environmental problems and development of remote territories require special attention and joint effort of authorities, businesses, scientific community and the population," the deputy minister said. "In my opinion, such large-scale projects are helpful in solving the tasks we are facing."
"Largely thanks to this unity, we will be able to preserve the fragile Arctic nature," the press service quoted him.
On the Heiss Island, the volunteers will register geolocation parameters of large waste, which they would not be able to handle. This information will be used for further cleanup planning.
"This expedition to the Heiss Island is a true challenge," the press service quoted Clean Arctic’s COB Ruslan Gubaidullin as saying. "Not every person can decide to undertake such a journey and to spend almost two months in the harsh North without communication and the Internet."
"That’s why we say: the Arctic is for people of strong character," he stressed. "It is the Arctic digital detox, I recommend it to all tourists."
Clean Arctic is a large-scale project to clean the Arctic territory from the waste, accumulated since the Soviet times. Captain of the 50 Let Pobedy nuclear-powered Arctic class icebreaker Dmitry Lobusov and Gennady Antokhin, Captain on FESCO’s ships from 1982 to 2012 are the project’s authors. Clean Arctic has developed into a platform, which unites public and volunteer organizations, scientists, officials and businesses. The project’s partners are Norilsk Nickel, PhosAgro, and RZD.