Vilkitsky Island is waiting for volunteers from different countries

The full-scale cleaning of the uninhabited Vilkitsky Island in the Kara Sea will be started in 2018. Volunteers from foreign countries and participants of expeditions will participate in it.

The director of the department of international and external economic relations of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Alexander Mazharov notes that the serious contest is taking place; it will make approximately 20 persons per place. According to his words, preferences will be given to those people, who have already participated in similar projects, for example, on cleaning of Beliy Island. The deputy governor of Yamal explains that well-trained people are necessary. It needs to pay attention to psychological state, the area is limited, and it is very risky. The weather is bad in summer, it storms often, the temperature makes 7-10 C degrees above zero. It needs to change clothes twice because of humidity. And there is one more rule – women and girls are not allowed to go to the expedition, as TASS informs. On Vilkitsky Island also as on Beliy Island there are many polar bears that are really dangerous. Delivery of people to arctic islands is the most expensive clause of expenditures at conducting of such expeditions. One flight of a helicopter there and back costs 2 million and 500 thousand rubles. If to go by water, it takes 5 days. Vilkitsky Island is situated between the Gulf of Ob and the Yenisei Gulf. Its width makes about 9 kilometers, the length – about 18 kilometers. It is named in the honor of the Russian hydrographer-geodesist, the chief of the main hydrographic office Andrey Vilkitsky. According to evaluation of ecologists, from Vilkitsky Island it needs to remove about 1000 tonnes of metal scrap – abandoned machinery, casks, metal constructions.