The Polar Museum
Winter trapping, seal hunting, expeditions and temporary exhibitions with arctic content.

Tromsø has been the centre of seal hunting in North Norway, and the town was established at the “Gateway to the Arctic” in the late 1800s. Tromsø has long been an important base for many polar expeditions, and the Polar Museum exhibits and presents this polar seafaring tradition. At the museum you will meet men, women, ships and equipment that were essential for life on the sea and in the Arctic.

Come and see our exhibitions about:
Overwintering in the Arctic
The trapper Henry Rudi who killed 713 polar bears
The first woman to winter in the Arctic – Wanny Woldstad
Seal hunting in the Arctic Ocean
Fridtjof Nansen’s and Roald Amundsen’s lives and expeditions
Helmer Hansen and Hjalmar Johansen who accompanied Amundsen to the South Pole
Svalbard, Willhelm Barentz’ discovery of the region in the 1500s, whaling in the 1600-1700s and Russian overwintering
Temporary exhibitions with arctic content. New exhibition opening january 18, 05:00 PM

Polar Night – Life and light in the dead of nigt
What goes down in the sea in the dark months when the polar night is dark over the Arctic? Researchers from UNIS, NTNU and UiT researched this in recent years, and all findings are unambiguous: the bustling with life in the dark night – both at depth and in shallower water. Some animals even makes its own light! Using measuring rigs which collects data throughout the year we have seen that plankton moves in unison even in winter, and robots, cameras and divers can take the different animals and plants closer look and tell us exactly which species are doing what down there in the dark. In the polar night, the ocean is a complex but important sphere in which to perform research! We can use the knowledge from Svalbard waters to understand more about life in the Arctic in the bright parts of the year, and to understand processes in the eternal darkness deep sea.