12 Aug 2017

SHO: New Siberian Islands

We have spent three days in the New Siberian Islands, we could have spent a lot longer (it would take a month or more to really explore all the islands), there was so much to see and do.  There are three groups of Islands, the Lyakhovsky group in the south, the Anzhu group and the De Long group in the north. These groups of islands all take their names from early explorers from the 18th and early 19th century.

We spent our time in the Lyakhovsky group of islands, these islands were named by royal decree by Catherine the Second after Ivan Lyakhov, explorer and merchant, who obtained an exclusive licence from the Tsar to collect and sell Mammoth Ivory from these islands.  We haven’t seen any actual mammoth tusks yet but we have seen a lot of evidence of Mammoth Ivory hunters. We understand from talking to some of the staff at the stations we have visited that it is an apparently lucrative business.