This Fjord Shows Even Small Populations Create Giant Microfiber Pollution

Jessica Leigh Hester / The New York Times

Longyearbyen, on the Adventfjorden bay in Norway's Svalbard archipelago. A study found that the tiny village emits roughly as many microplastics as a wastewater treatment plant near Vancouver. (photo: Andreas Alexander/aldiami/Alamy) 28 September 21

Researchers found that one tiny Arctic village’s unfiltered sewage produces as much microplastic as the treated waste of more than a million people.

Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago chilling halfway between the Nordic country and the North Pole, is known as much for its rugged beauty as its remoteness. From the village of Longyearbyen, visitors and roughly 2,400 residents can appreciate the stark terrain around the fjord known as Adventfjorden.

But the beauty of this Arctic inlet conceals messier, microscopic secrets.

“People see this nice, clean, white landscape,” said Claudia Halsband, a marine ecologist in Tromso, Norway, “but that’s only part of the story.”

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