The planning and direction of the British government's efforts to find and rescue Sir John Franklin were carried out in the Admiralty offices on Whitehall by the Board of Admiralty, which comprised six Lords Commissioners and two Secretaries, subject to the ultimate authority of Parliament. The Board worked closely with the Navy's Hydrographer, Francis Beaufort, who was probably the single most influential person involved in the planning. He and the Board utilized advice from various officers who had been on Arctic expeditions, and consulted many organizations and individuals in Britain and abroad on particular aspects of the search.

This paper lists all the Italian expeditions in search of the airship Italia, commanded by General Umberto Nobile, which crashed to the north of Svalbard on 25 May 1928. There were several such expeditions that involved members of the Alpini, the elite mountain corps of the Italian army. The Italian government had allowed Nobile the services of nine Alpini under the command of Captain Gennaro Sora. The original intention had been that they should assist at the base and, in emergency, should act as a rescue team. This they proceeded to do after it had become clear that the airship had disappeared. The Alpini completed much travelling around Svalbard and while unsuccessful in the main object of their search, accomplished some exploration, including the discovery of an island that was named Alpiniøya by Sora.

Discussions about the management of non-governmental activities in Antarctica have been handicapped by a lack of clarity in terminology. The term ‘tourism,’ for example, is used in a catch-all manner to describe activities as widely divergent and incommensurable as overflights by commercial jetliners and solo ski traverses of the ice cap. Recent debate about stricter regulation of independent expeditions has been similarly confused. This paper examines these definitional hurdles and offers a broad categorization of activities in Antarctica. An overview of recent independent expeditions is then given and issues are discussed. It is suggested that, to date, the terms of the debate have been set by the most powerful vested interests in Antarctica and that the discussion itself has been polarized. The paper does not prescribe policy but indicates alternative points of view and argues that the strict regulatory approach increasingly favoured by some national programs is out of all proportion to the size of potential problems and could diminish traditions of cooperation, non-proprietorship, and the adventurous spirit, which have uniquely characterized human endeavour in Antarctica.

Using methods developed by family history researchers, it is possible to discover a remarkable amount about the individual lives of many men involved in Sir John Franklin's last fatal attempt to discover a Northwest Passage. This work constitutes what might be called ‘the social history’ of Franklin studies, relevant to that voyage in particular, and the early Victorian navy in general. Light is shed upon the lives of the Royal Marines aboard both HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, men who sailed and died with Franklin.

The Byrranga Mountains (Gory Byrranga) are the most northern mountainous massif of the Taymyr Peninsula (Poluostrov Taymyr) in the Russian Arctic. Although studies of them began in 1736, they are one of the least studied areas of the Arctic. The region has no population, is remote, and has difficult access. As a result, the mountainous tundra ecosystems are preserved practically in a pristine state. The mountains are composed of siltstones and intrusive rocks of neutral composition; vast areas along all the mountain chain are occupied by exposed limestone. Rivers flow in deep intermontane depressions while lakes are found mainly in faults. The climate is an extremely severe continental type. Microclimatic areas provide some relief and support a rich and diverse flora. There have been 391 species and subspecies of vascular plants recorded, but no reliable data on the number of species of mosses and lichens are available. Relict thickets of tall willows are found in protected valleys of piedmont brooks, whereas relict alder-tree thickets occur on warm slopes. The mountain fauna includes nine mammal and 56 bird species. Intermontane depressions serve as corridors for seasonal migrations of wild reindeer that usually spend summers in the southern piedmont areas. Northern piedmonts and wide intermontane depressions are places where herds of musk-ox, introduced in the 1970s, concentrate. The bird fauna of relict willow thickets is highly specific and the fish fauna is quite diverse (16 species), but some species in Taymyr Lake (Ozero Taymyr) have been overexploited. This paper provides the first detailed biogeographical description of the Byrranga Mountains in English.

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.