The site is located within the Russian Arctic National Park established in 2009.
Oranskie Islands (77.069°N x 67.642°E) is a group of several small inshore islands just north off northern tip of Northern Island of Novaya Zemlya Archipelago. The islands are at the very border between Barents and Kara seas, but the area is influenced by relatively warm Barents Sea waters. The SEATRACK site is located on the Eastern Bolshoy Oransky Island where the cliffs are not too tall so birds can be caught.
The islands themselves are not inhabited by humans, but remnants of early hunting activity are visible. At the nearby Zhelania Cape, situated at the northeastern-most tip of Northern Island a manned weather station was operated as well as a military base but both were closed down in the 1990s. Currently the only human activity in the area consists of the operations of the Russian Arctic National Park, during the summer months.
On Oranskie Islands; Brünnich’s guillemots, black-legged kittiwakes, glaucous gulls, black guillemots, Atlantic puffins and great skuas can be found breeding. Seabirds are not monitored regularly at the site and to date no other research is being conducted there. The islands are visited from time to time by tourist vessels and some intermittent monitoring of walrus numbers are carried out there.
Loggers were first deployed at the Oranskie Islands as a part of the SEATRACK pilot study in 2013, the site is however not easily accessible due to its remoteness thus annual visits cannot be guaranteed.
Notice: Russian field sites are not part of SEATRACK phase III.
Site coordinator
Ivan Mitzin
National Park Russian Arctic
Data availability
