Russian coastguard vessel asked for Norwegian assistance near Svalbard.

The Norwegian Parliament Stortinget has approved the plan for development and operation of the Goliat oil field in the Barents Sea. The approval is a step further in the realization of the first ever oil field development in this area.

A new way of tracking polar bears will not only help keep tabs of the Arctic animals, but also gives trackers an easier and more cost efficient way of doing their job. The three part method, developed at Queen’s University by biologists Peter V.C. de Groot and Peter Boag, combines traditional methods of Inuit hunting with up to date genetic DNA analysis and is less stressful on the polar bears than the current method of tracking then from a helicopter, tranquilizing and then marking them.

Canada’s Transport Minister, John Baird, announced yesterday that amendments to the country’s Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, Canadian Arctic waters will be better protected against pollution. The amendments received royal assent on the 11th of June and mean that Canada will extend the protection its Arctic waters are receiving and the country will have more control over what happens in those waters.

The regional authorities in Arkhangelsk Oblast believe that Arkhangelsk is best suited to become center for the Northern Sea Route, and plans to raise the issue under a meeting in the Maritime Panel.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) claims that cod from the Barents Sea is one of the most environmental friendly types of sea food you can eat.

Canadian historian Gwynne Dyer says the Arctic passage for cargo ships will never be heavily used and its potential is highly exaggerated. Dyer also believes that the current fight over an ice free Arctic passage is being highly overblown.

Thanks to an announcement yesterday by Russia, polar bears and their supporters have something to be happy about. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to establish a nature reserve on the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, an island in the Arctic Ocean situated between the Barents and Kara Seas. The reserve, which will be 1.5 million hectare in size, covers a large area that the Arctic polar bears call home.

The Russian economist Grigory Javlinskij believes that the difficulties which Telenor have encountered in Russia could be an element in the fight for access to petroleum resources in the Barents Sea. According to Javlinskij, Putin decides the outcome of the trial, and a negative decision would probably frighten StatoilHydro away from the Shtokman project.

The Norwegian government has decided to open up for year-around ship-to-ship reloading of oil in the fjord outside Kirkenes, near the border to Russia. The decision comes at the same time as Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg visits the Arctic border town.