This is the final blogpost in our “polar” series, dedicated to those days when Maarten (who is writing this) was sent to the arctic and antarctic in order to research the marine fauna there. Until now, I have written about my experiences in Antarctica. This blogpost is the only one about my stay on the island of Spitsbergen (in 2007). Since I basically stayed in one location (the Ny-Ålesund research village) and only left this place on two (short) occasions, I really can’t say I have seen a lot of the island. Spitsbergen is the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago (the other two islands are Edgeøya and Nordaustlandet). Halfway between mainland Norway and…