20 August 2005

This article from the NY Times. "swam and clambered over chunks of ice"?!

NORWAY: ARCTIC RESEARCHERS SAVED FROM POLAR BEARS Three unarmed Polish researchers stranded for 15 hours on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, a Norwegian territory in the Arctic, were rescued by helicopters as polar bears were closing in on them, officials said. "It was the worst imaginable situation," said Peter Braaten of the Svalbard governor's office. The three men, from the Polish research ship Horyzont, had set out in a small inflatable boat to pick up equipment on one of the islands, but it capsized. They swam and clambered over chunks of ice to get to the island of Edgeoya. At least three polar bears where within 20 yards of the men when the helicopter picked them up. "That is dangerously close," Mr. Braaten said. (AP)