Scientific and research expedition “Lost Islands” to the Arctic Regions arranged by the “Finval” Research Centre has been successfully completed. 6 participants of the expedition sailed about 2700 km of difficult sea routes around the Taimyr Peninsula on a sail and motor trimaran “Finval”, and explored many Arctic islands. The expedition started at the Khatanga settlement and finished in the Dikson village on September, 4th. The expedition lasted for 45 days. Twice the trimaran was blocked by heavy ice: on the Preobrazheniya Island and on the South Peter Island; three times polar bears approached the trimaran and we had to frighten them urgently off; hurricane wind and storms many times tested the strength of the expedition participants and the vessel… During the expedition we collected unique scientific data on marine mammals (walrus, polar bear, true seals, cetaceans), terrestrial mammals, birds, molluscs, plants etc.

A scientific and educational expedition “Kotuy” took place from July, 1st till July, 18th of 2016. The participants of the expedition sailed upstream the Khatanga river, the Kotuy River to the Kotuykan river on the trimaran “Finval” and then back to Khatanga. The length of the water routs constituted approximately 700 km and hiking routs about 60 km. The expedition is accomplished with a 120 percent result. Wonderful warm and sunny weather contributed to the expedition success… During the expeditions we collected interesting ornithological and botanical data. The common crane and the osprey were observed for the first time in those regions. We checked the legend saying there are no birds in a supposedly abnormal area on the Kugda-Yuryakh stream – we found out that birds live there and breed…

The scientific and educational car expedition to the West Kazakhstan “Mangyshlak secrets” took place from April 11 to May 9, 2016. The participants of the expedition travelled more than 6500 km across Russia and Kazakhstan, made close acquaintance with nature of several geographic zones, saw ancient historical sites of different times and nations, and made interesting paleontological discoveries (teeth of fossil sharks, remains of sea hedgehogs, sea shells and other residuals of ancient Tethys ocean dwellers). During the expeditions we collected scientific monitoring data.

During an expedition arranged by the Finval Research Centre in summer 2015 to the Khatanga Bay in the Laptev Sea a Swedish ornithologist Alexander Hellquist found a Ring-Billed Gull (Larus delawarensis), a bird species that is new for Russia. The nearest places where this species occurs are Alaska (4500 km) and Canada (5000km). There are records of this species in Kamchatka, but they are not proved by good-quality photos… A Ring-Billed Gull is the nearest one to the camera man on the photo. A black ring on the yellow bill is clearly seen.