Earlier today I finally received an update from the Governors office in Svalbard on their investigation into the harassment of the Polar Bear from helicopter by the Norwegian Polar Institute [NPI] in April last month (Full Story with Update and Podcast). A screenshot of my follow up email and their full response as received today is included below:
As is abundantly clear from the brevity of the email received from the Governors office they have found that the NPI did not violate their permit in the harassment and darting of this Polar Bear. This leaves some very big unanswered questions: The first of which, is, was an investigation even undertaken? and if so, where is the documentary evidence of this investigation?
What about the time-stamped photographs that were submitted to the Governors office that demonstrably demonstrate that the harassment of this Polar Bear went on far longer than NPI’s claimed ‘2-3 minutes’? Additionally, and to date, (and to my knowledge), none of the 12 passenger witnesses, the captain or the first mate of M.S Freya (who all witnessed this event first hand) have been contacted and/or interviewed by the Governors office. How can a thorough investigation be conducted without interviewing the first hand witnesses?
‘If’ this behaviour and methodology employed by the NPI did not violate the terms of their permit, then the requirements of the permit are seriously broken. NPI needs to be held accountable for their actions. They cannot continue to act with impunity.
It is worth noting that the Sysselmestern environmental office is directly under and controlled by the environmental ministry in Norway. The environmental industry effectively owns the NPI. This shabby cover up by the Governors office is nothing more than corruption at the highest level. Norway and the NPI should hang their heads in absolute shame at allowing this to continue.
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www.WILDNATUREPHOTOTRAVEL.com 
Well, that is both the most predictable and most disappointing outcome of this situation.
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