Christmas lecture about Bear Island

45 years ago the air taxi pilot and journalist Dag Kjelldahl arrived at Bear Island (Bjørnøya) to work with radiosonde weather observations and gather material for his first book about the Arctic. Little did he know that his first wintering would be ruined by a deadly polar bear attack on one of the fourteen wintering crewmembers at the isolated weather station. Because of the surrounding sea ice, it took a long time for the Norwegian navy to come to their assistance through the near total darkness of November.

Today the Barents Sea is facing the threat of global warming, and Bear Island is facing the specific danger of extinction to its one million seabirds by potential oil spills from arctic drilling.

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Dag Kjelldahl was born in Oslo and currently lives in Whitby, England. He has a background in aviation, teaching and museums. Kjelldahl has published several books on Bear Island and the Arctic, and has helped to establish and develop centres devoted to science.

The lecture is in English, amply supplied with photos, and lasts for one hour. It is included in your ordinary museum ticket, at no extra cost.