I AM ANGRY

The article has no author, but was possibly written collectively by the participants in ”Svalbardkurset” ( a high profile summer excursion for primarily Oslo bureaucrats) on board the coastguard vessel “Senja”. It seems that there are persons in the bureaucracy who have a negative attitude towards tourism in Svalbard, and who are willing to twist facts and make unsubstantiated claims to reach their goals.

The claims that anger me are: ”In the northwest corner of Svalbard, we observed how tourists were put ashore with rubber boats at a location where polar bear had been seen. At the same time, other tourists were put ashore by a group of walrus where they walked up to the animals. In other words, situations where conflicts could occur or animals could be disturbed were consciously sought out. This incident gave the course participants reason to discuss today’s management regulations and the enforcement of them.” (my translation).

One by one, those four sentences contain falsehoods and insults. I was the expedition leader and responsible for one of those groups of tourists. My opinion about what happened is entirely different, and I find the article insinuating.