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The polar archipelago of Svalbard was first discovered by Willem Barentsz in 1596, although there is disputed evidence of use by Pomors or Norsemen. Whaling for bowhead whales started in 1611, dominated by English and Dutch companies, though other countries participated.
A third period began in 1978, and has lasted until the present day. Preceded by an article written by the Norwegian-Russian palaeontologist Anatol Heintz in 1964, a Soviet expedition from the Institute of Archaeology at the USSR Academy of Sciences – led by Vadim F. Starkov – set out to prove that the Russian Pomors had preceded the Dutch on Svalbard.
The archipelago has fifteen bird sanctuaries, one geotopic protected area and six nature reserves—with Nordaust-Svalbard and Søraust-Svalbard both being larger than any of the national parks. Most of the nature reserves and three of the national parks were created in 1973, with the remaining areas gaining protection in the 2000s. [ 185 ]
The island was named after Dutch explorer Willem Barents who, despite discovering Svalbard, never sighted Barentsøya itself. The name "Barents Land" was only given after an 1865 Swedish expedition. The name "Barents Land" was only given after an 1865 Swedish expedition.
Once named Spitsbergen after its largest island, the Svalbard archipelago was made a part of Norway—not a dependency—by the Svalbard Act of 1925. Since this date, it has been a region of Norway, with a Norwegian-appointed governor resident at the administrative centre of Longyearbyen.
The archipelago is administered by the Governor of Svalbard, which is subordinate to the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] Unlike the rest of Norway (including Jan Mayen), Svalbard is a free economic zone and a demilitarized zone , [ 5 ] and is not part of the Schengen Area nor the European Economic Area .
Although Svalbard is in Norwegian territory, and its government controls 99.5% of its land, there’s a sizable Russian presence in the archipelago, thanks to a treaty dating back to 1920 that ...
[5] [6] The archive facility is on Spitsbergen, the biggest island in Svalbard. [7] The facility is a large steel vault [7] located somewhere between 150 metres (490 ft) [5] and 300 metres (980 ft) below the ground or permafrost [7] [4] inside an abandoned coal mine (Store Norske Gruve 3) that reaches over 300 metres (980 ft) into the side of a ...