The Arctic Ocean - Smeerenburg
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The Arctic Ocean
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Introduction
With much of it covered in ice all year round and with no daylight from October to March, the Arctic Ocean is one of the world's most remarkable oceans. It's home to a multitude of unique life forms, all highly adapted to cope with the extreme and seasonal conditions. The impacts of climate change are more strongly felt here than anywhere else in the world.
Smeerenburg
Overview
Smeerenburg (meaning Blubbertown) is an abandoned settlement in north western Svalbard which was a centre for whaling during the 17th century. Due to the extremely cold climate, there are a few remnants of this area's historical past that are relatively well preserved. In its heyday it had a teeming summer community of 200 people brought together to hunt and harvest the blubber of the large and slow moving Greenland right whale.
The dead whales were towed into shallow water where they were flensed (stripped of their blubber). On land, they were cut into smaller pieces and then boiled in vast copper vats on red brick hearths. The resulting oil was put into barrels and shipped back to Europe. The right whale population never recovered. There are almost none left in the waters around Svalbard.
| Importance: | This site is extremely significant in defining Svalbard's cultural heritage. |
| Dive category: | No dive was made. |
| Access: | Smeerenburg is visited by a number of tour operators but its artifacts are strictly protected and must be left exactly as they are found. |
Interesting for
- A settlement developed by Dutch whalers in the 1600's
- Wikipedia gives a brief history of Smeerenburg.
- Smeerenburg
- Whaling in Spitsbergen
- Wikipedia looks at the history of whaling, from prehistoric times until the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.
- History of whaling
BBC related content
- Oceans presenter biography: Lucy Blue
- Oceans Arctic expedition: Whaling history
- Oceans Arctic expedition: Frozen in time
- Oceans image gallery: The Arctic Ocean
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