Early explorers to Antarctica built wooden huts and brought huge quantities of supplies and equipment to support their geographical and scientific studies for several years. When the expeditions ended and relief ships arrived, a rapid exodus frequently allowed only essential items to be taken north. The huts and thousands of items were left behind. Fuel depots with unused containers of petroleum products, asbestos materials, and diverse chemicals were also left at the huts. This investigation found high concentrations of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in soils under and around the historic fuel depots, including anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, chrysene, fluorene, and pyrene, as well as benzo[a]anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene, and fluoranthene, which are recognized carcinogens. Asbestos materials within the huts have been identified and extensive amounts of fragmented asbestos were found littering the ground around the Cape Evans hut. These materials are continually abraded and fragmented as tourists walk over them and the coarse scoria breaks and grinds down the materials. A chemical spill, within the Cape Evans hut, apparently from caustic substances from one of the scientific experiments, has caused an unusual deterioration and defibration on affected woods. Although these areas are important historic sites protected by international treaties, the hazardous waste materials left by the early explorers should be removed and remedial action taken to restore the site to as pristine a condition as possible. Recommendations are discussed for international efforts to study and clean up these areas, where the earliest environmental pollution in Antarctica was produced.

Past documented laboratory measurements have shown movement of petroleum hydrocarbons to the freezing front in contaminated freezing soils. The mechanisms that are, in part, responsible for the increased contaminant concentration at the freezing front are illustrated in this study with a mass-balance model. Results from this quantitative analysis show that this concentration increase is due to exclusion of petroleum hydrocarbon from the crystalline ice structure and from physical displacement of liquid petroleum hydrocarbon from the pore space as water freezes and expands into ice. Consequences of this process in relation to contaminant migration in freezing soils through time are discussed.

The cemetery at Whalers Bay, Deception Island, was the largest in the Antarctic prior to being partially buried and partially washed away during a volcanic eruption in 1969. In 2002 a wooden cross at Argentina's Decepción Station was identified as being that of the Norwegian whaler Peder Knapstad. It was removed, secured in a base, and re-erected at Whalers Bay.

Increasing tourism in the Antarctic Peninsula region concerns scientists, policy-makers, and tourist companies with its potential negative effects on wildlife. Site-specific ecological studies have been initiated to examine differences in population dynamics and distribution of animals as well as their behavioural and physiological reactions to humans. Penguin Island (southeast of King George Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica) is frequently visited by tourists due to its high species diversity and aesthetic value. In two seasons, the authors conducted a bird census and studied behaviour and heart-rate changes of southern giant petrels and skuas relating to tourist visits on Penguin Island. Management recommendations are given, based on the study results. The protection of southern giant petrels should be increased by having a minimum distance of 50 m for all visitors. The eastern, southern, and western parts of the island should not be visited and should serve as refuge areas. The wildlife experience for tourists can still be enjoyed by concentrating visits to the northern and central part of Penguin Island. Use of a specific path to localise impacts in a prescribed area is recommended.

Evidence from colony surveys and local Inuit knowledge strongly suggest that the Canadian population of ivory gulls (Pagophila eburnea) has declined dramatically. The observations of ivory gulls at sea presented here are consistent with this. Ivory gulls were observed during two cruises on the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov in the eastern Canadian high Arctic in August 1993 and 2002. Ivory gulls were seen 3.5 times more often in 1993 (n = 176) than in 2002 (n = 149), and, corrected for observation effort, four times more ivory gulls were seen in 1993 than in 2002. Ivory gulls are scavengers: they were never observed feeding on fish behind the vessel while ice-breaking, although black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) often were seen feeding in this way. Ivory gulls were observed scavenging around polar-bear (Ursus maritimus) kills in 1993 but not in 2002. By far the largest number of ivory gulls was seen near Grise Fiord in 1993. There, opportunities for them to scavenge were likely good at the community landfill as well as at Inuit and polar-bear kills due to complete ice coverage of the surrounding marine area. No ivory gulls were seen there in 2002. Observations of four individuals in 1993 and five individuals in 2002 near the southern end of Eureka Sound and in Norwegian Bay, 150 km from the nearest known breeding colonies, suggest that as yet undiscovered colonies might exist in this area. With three lines of evidence (colony surveys, local Inuit knowledge, at-sea surveys) now indicating population decline, urgent reassessment of the status of ivory gulls in Canada needs to take place.

A once-restricted report dealing with the first (and only) official East German Antarctic expedition to Prydz Bay, East Antarctica, is discussed. Members of ‘die Ergebnisse der DDR-Erkundungsexpedition’ (EREX 79/80) were in the Larsemann Hills during the 1979–80 season. From ground (17 January) and aerial examination (17 January, 8 February), a site on eastern Broknes was selected for a future station; proposed facilities and some EREX observations are presented. Implications and consequences of the visit are discussed in relation to subsequent station development in the Larsemann Hills.

The article discusses how organisational structure and culture affected the preparations for sledging in three Antarctic expeditions between 1901 and 1904. The central focus is how expedition leaders sought tacit knowledge, ‘the knowledge of how we do things.’ Two organisational types were derived from a study of 36 major polar expeditions. These – the industrial organisation and the innovative organisation – were used to analyse how sledging practices evolved in the British National Antarctic Expedition, German South Polar Expedition, and Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. Robert Falcon Scott, in great part as a result of his naval heritage, did not fully understand the need for and the methods required to gain the operational knowledge required for sledging in Antarctica. He applied the traditional command-and-control system based on naval tradition. Erich von Drygalski and William Speirs Bruce applied Fridtjof Nansen's scientific approach, in which the scientific staffs were integrated into sledging operations. In this approach, every variable that could possibly affect the outcome of the research was incorporated into preparations, much as is the case in classical experimental design. While no attempt is made to judge sledging success in the study, the results clearly indicate the importance of knowing how to use the tacit dimension in sledging. The implications go far beyond sledging and suggest the need for managers to have an intimate understanding of how things work.

This article examines the impacts of burgeoning globalisation on small fishery-based villages in Iceland. With economic restructuring, new technologies in production, and changing labour migration, the inhabitants are not uniformly able to take advantage of current changes, and some have lost while others have gained. The paper examines the effects on people's lives and experiences and how they cope with these changes locally. The discussion is based on ethnographic field research in the 1990s. It takes a particular look at aspects of local identities that are related to gender and nationality. Since gender and ethnic differences are embedded in social institutions, they are integral parts of individuals' strategies to make better lives for themselves. Gender and nationality are constructed in the process of societal transformations. The primary goal of this paper is to shed light on gender in relation to current transformation. However, nationality is a new marker of difference within the localities — with the growing number of immigrants — that is important to consider. Combining attention to gender and ethnic constructions gives a broad picture of life in fishery villages in the Arctic and the various strategies applied by the inhabitants.