The king crab is native to the Bering Sea, north Pacific Ocean, around the Kamchatka Peninsula and neighbouring Alaskan waters. It was introduced artificially by Soviet Union‘s Joseph Stalin into the Murmansk Fjord, Barents Sea, during the 1960s to provide new, valuable catch for Soviet fishermen. The average temperature of the water for general survival of the crab is between 39°F (4°C) and 50°F (10°C). The crabs prefer to be in the lower temperatures but can continue a stable life cycle in the warmer temperatures. The depth at which it can live has a lot to do with what stage of their life cycle they are in; newly born crabs stay in the more shallow waters where there is plenty of food and protection for them to survive. read more…
Kirkenes is a town with a population of 3,500 in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, in the far northeastern part of Norway. The town lies on a peninsula along the Bøkfjorden, an arm of the large Varangerfjorden. The main church for Kirkenes is Kirkenes Church, located in the Haganes area of the town. Kirkenes is served by Kirkenes Airport in Høybuktmoen. There are non-stop flights to Oslo and Tromsø. Kirkenes is one end of the route of the Hurtigruten, which cruises daily up and down the Norway coast to and from Bergen. One can drive 100 kilometres (62 mi) south, and walk 10 kilometres (6.2 mi), into the Øvre Pasvik National Park, reaching the border point of the three countries (Muotkavaara), where the three time zones meet. The town is situated about 400 kilometres (250 mi) north of the Arctic Circle. read more…
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. Located north of mainland Europe, it is about midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. Spitsbergen is the largest island, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya. The administrative center is Longyearbyen, and other settlements, in addition to research outposts, are the Russian mining community of Barentsburg, the research community of Ny-Ålesund and the mining outpost of Sveagruva. The archipelago is administrated by the Governor of Svalbard. read more…