In April 2022 the B.I.G. team collected snow, ice and water samples from two fjords in Svalbard during a ski expedition from Barentsburg to Longyearbyen. I returned with Laura and Julie from the B.I.G. team a year later to try and collect the samples samples from the same two fjords this year. This would not only give us more data points in these fjords but also allow us to see if there was any difference in the samples from year to year. We didn’t have enough time to make the data collection by ski so this time we were to travel by snowmobile.
Unfortunately there was no ice in one of the two fjords we were intending to visit, so our attentioned turned to Van Mijenfjorden only. It was a fabulous journey out to the fjord and we were very grateful for the generous help of Ida and Ryan, especially for keeping an eye out for polar bears while we sampled, as we would later see plenty of tracks out on the ice! Thank fully, there was no sign of those who had made the footprints…
It was very satisfying to deposit the samples we collected in storage at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, where they will wait to be analysed in the coming year.