Talk:2011 Svalbard polar bear attack

Articles
A few links for referencing/expansion

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8692422/Taming-the-wilderness-brings-man-and-polar-bear-perilously-close-together.html

http://inewp.com/?p=8390

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14456536

RafikiSykes (talk) 02:32, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Moved from main article for now, I am concerned this is someone trying to defend/cover parties involved rather than reflecting events
However, information freely available to anyone planning to visit Svalbard, from the Sysselmann's (local authority) website, makes it clear that the risk assessment of any camping trip like this has to be approved by the Sysselman. BSES had been sending trips to the same area since the 1960s, and in recent years these must have been approved by the Sysselmann's office as having acceptable safety procedures, or they would not have been allowed to leave Longyearbyen. BSES usually rents expedition rifles in Longyearbyen, since expedition leaders do not routinely have the qualifications needed to own or transport firearms. To rent a rifle in Longyearbyen you need a police certificate from your home country, and necessary skills in handling a firearm. Rifle training for leaders is more than the minimum done by other institutions; training for expeditioners is similar to the minimum level; again, this is part of the presumably approved risk assessment. Other tourist operations that run camping trips in Svalbard also do not take dogs and do not routinely do night watches: so the "failings" - while evidently they are failings - are well within accepted practice.


 * The editor above has only contributed that to wiki and that combined with the wording to me suggests an involved party.RafikiSykes (talk) 22:54, 10 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I suppose however it is quite possible (for example) that the SPA editor is not an involved party to this specific event but has some familiarity with the general situation on the island. I don't see a link to the contributor's page to leave a note that references the guidelines.FeatherPluma (talk) 19:24, 4 September 2011 (UTC)