Landsat images of northern Axel Heiberg Island and northern Ellesmere Island, including part of the Ellesmere Island National Park Reserve in the Canadian high Arctic, are presented. These are believed to be the first Landsat images ever to be obtained of this region, which is north of latitude 80°N and once thought to be beyond the meaningful imaging range of Landsat. A general description of glaciological phenomena in the almost cloud-free images, and some of the attributes of the Ellesmere Island National Park Reserve, demonstrates some of the features and processes that can be imaged by Landsat in the region. New findings concerning the state and position of the front of the surge-type Otto Glacier, icebergs in Otto Fiord, and the extent and surface morphology of the Nansen Ice Plug indicate the capabilities of Landsat to contribute to original glaciological research in the region.

The Kola region of northwestern USSR is the most highly developed area of the circumpolar north. Development based on exploitation and industrial refinement of natural resources, especially minerals and fish, has produced severe environmental damage in Kola and in neighbouring Norway and Finland. This article reviews the region's resources, existing development strategy and damage, and propose an alternative strategy that is environmentally and socially more benign. Possibilities for reducing the region's ties to central planning authorities and integration of the economy with that of norther Europe are also considered.

Approximately 39 000 tourists have visited Antarctica since 1957; numbers peryearare provided. Abrief history of sea and airborne tourism in Antarctica reveals past and current trends. The formation of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators and its role in the self-regulated tourism industry in Antarctica are considered, together with the implications of recently-promulgated Antarctic Treaty Recommendation XVI-13. The number of tourists visiting Antarctica is shown to exceed the combined number of scientists and support personnel from all National Antarctic Programs. It is concluded that the ATS provides a suitable framework within which to develop measures to protect Antarctica from tourist activity. However, regulations developed must be based on hard data on the size and impact of the industry to be effectively implemented.

Alaskans disagree sharply over the issue of a subsistence priority for hunting and fishing by rural residents, including most Alaskan Eskimos, Aleuts, and Indians. The issue highlights competing visions of Alaska's future; one based upon Euroamerican values and the other on indigenous rights and customary law. Recent political and legal developments, particularly the Alaska Supreme Court's 1989 McDowell decision invalidating the state of Alaska's rural priority, have undermined significantly subsistence protections. Failure of the state to restore this priority led the US federal government to take over subsistence management under provisions of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (PL 96–487). For Alaska's indigenous peoples, these events make clear the limitations of relying solely on state and federal governments for protecting subsistence. Efforts are underway to strengthen tribal governments and assert limited jurisdiction over hunting and fishing. A major goal is to achieve standing for negotiations with state and federal authorities over future co-management of subsistence resources.

Achievement of provincial status has been the dream of many Yukoners since the early 1900s. This paper reviews the struggle for provincial status by Yukoners, and examines the hurdles that must be overcome to achieve provincehood, and the consequences of not being a province. It concludes with recommendations for building a strategy that could assist the Yukon Government in achieving the goal of provincehood.

Several Arctic and Antarctic historic sites have now been extensively excavated and some, such as the Scott and Shackleton huts in the Ross Dependency of Antarctica, have been restored and opened to visitors. The huts of Mawson's Australian Antarctic Expedition 1911–1914, the sole expedition site of the historic age in Australian Antarctic Territory, have become a tourist attraction and the subject of controversy. One view favours bringing the main hut back to Australia for display in a museum, on the grounds that the hut is deteriorating and at present inaccessible to the Australian people: repatriation would preserve the hut and enable it to be viewed by a greater number of visitors. An alternative is to preserve the hut on site by covering it with a dome or re-cladding, replacing the timbers which have been seriously eroded, and retaining the site (but not at present the hut interior) as a tourist feature. The author argues in favour of preservation on site, retaining as much of the original fabric of the huts as possible, and proposes the formation of an informal network to exchange information among other researchers studying polar historic sites.

Field research was carried out on Seal Island (60°59.5'S, 55°24.5'W), South Shetland Islands from 14 December 1989 to 27 February 1990. The main focus ofstudy was the ecology and population biology of Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalusgazella (Bengtson and others 1990a, b)and chinstrap Pygoscelis antarctica and macaroni Eudyptes chrysolophus penguins (Bengtson and others 1990a; Croll and others 1990). Analysis of stomach and fecal contents of live adult and sub-adult animals showed that krill were predominate in the diets of all three species, especially the penguins. Prey fed to penguin chicks by their parents contained 99% krill by weight. Thedietof fur seals varied from principally krill (62%), to fish (13%), to mixed krill and fish (25%). Traces of squid beaks were found in 15% of the fur seal stomach samples. Time-depth recorders and radio transm itters were attached to 14 fur seals, 10 macaroni penguins and 40 chinstrap penguins, to assess foraging behavior. Fur seals foraged at depths averaging 20—30 m, and the penguins 35–50 m. All three species swam to areas 11—100 km north of Seal Island to feed (water depths varied from 200 m to greater than 3000 m). These results are consistent with data collected in 1988 and 1989.

Data on the geographic distribution of native peoples of the Soviet North, published for the 1970and 1979 censuses (Tsentral'noyestatisticheskoye upravleniye SSSR 1973,1984), are summarized by administrative division and nationality for comparison with data for 1959, 1970 and 1979 given in Polar Record 20 (125): 169–70 (1980). Of the Chukchi, Dolgany, Eskimosy, Itel'meny, Koryaki, Mansi, Nganasany, Saamy, and Yakuty, more than 70% were reported to live within a single northern administrative division in 1979. More widely distributed were the Aleuty, Evenki, Eveny, Karely, Khanty, Sel'kupy and Yukagiry. The total population of northern native peoples was 915,096 in 1970 and 951, 471 in 1979.

This paper illustrates the manner in which inceased political and community interest in Antarctica is shifting the focus of Australian Antarctic research towards environmental management, creating tensions amongst bureaucrats and scientists as to programme priorities and funding allocations, and argues the existence of three distinct eras, each with particular chacteristics and orientation, but all reflecting political and scientific perspectives about Antarctic at the relevant time: (a) idosyncratic individualism in the ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration 1890–1945; (b) hydra-headed science programmes within the Antarctic Treaty system 1945–1959–1990; and (c) prospective maturity management of the Antarctic environment in the post-CRAMRA era, 1990 onwards.