Jan Mayen Fishing Camps Apartments and Island Rooms

Jan Mayen

Location Arctic Ocean
Coordinates 70°59′N 8°32′W / 70.983, -8.533Coordinates: 70°59′N 8°32′W / 70.983, -8.533
Area 373 km²
Highest point Beerenberg 2,277 m (7,470 ft)
Administration
Norway
County Governor of Nordland Åshild Hauan
Largest city Olonkinbyen
Demographics
Population 14–30

Beerenberg in Jan MayenJan Mayen Island, a part of the Kingdom of Norway, is a 55 km (34 miles) long (southwest-northeast) and 373 km² (144 mi²) in area arctic volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, partly covered by glaciers. It has two parts: larger Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km wide (1.6 mi). It lies 600 km (about 400 mi) north of Iceland, 500 km (about 300 mi) east of Greenland and 1,000 km (about 600 mi) west of the Norwegian mainland. The island is mountainous, the highest summit being the Beerenberg volcano in the north. The isthmus is the location of the two largest lakes of the island, Sørlaguna (South Lagoon), and Nordlaguna (North Lagoon). A third lake is called Ullerenglaguna (Ullereng Lagoon). Jan Mayen was formed by the Jan Mayen hotspot.

Economy
Jan Mayen Island has no exploitable natural resources. Economic activity is limited to providing services for employees of Norway's radio and meteorological stations located on the island. It has one unpaved airstrip about 1,585 meters (5,200 ft) long, and its 124.1 km (74.1 mi) of coast include no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages.

Jan Mayen is an integrated geographical body of Norway. A dispute between Norway and Denmark regarding the fishing exclusion zone between Jan Mayen and Greenland was settled in 1988 granting Denmark with the greater area of sovereignty. Since 1995, it has been administered by the County Governor (fylkesmann) of the Norwegian county of Nordland; however, some authority has been delegated to a station commander of the Norwegian Logistics Organisation-CIS, a branch of the armed forces.

Society
The only inhabitants on the island are personnel working for the Royal Norwegian Defence Force or the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. There are fourteen people who spend the winter on the island, but the population may double during the summer, when heavy maintenance is performed. Personnel serve either six months or one year, and are exchanged twice a year in April and October. The main purpose of the military personnel is to operate a Long Range Navigation (Loran-C) base. The support crew, including mechanics, cooks and a nurse are among the military personnel. Both the LORAN transmitter and the meteorological station are located a few kilometers away from the settlement Olonkinbyen (English: The Olonkin City), where all personnel live.

Transport to the island is provided by C-130 Hercules military transport planes operated by the Royal Norwegian Air Force, that land at Jan Mayensfield, which only has a gravel runway. The planes fly in from Bodø Main Air Station eight times a year. Since the airport doesn't have any instrument landing possibilities, visibility is required, and it is not uncommon for the planes to have to return to Bodø, two hours away, without landing. For heavy goods, freight ships come during the summer, but there are no harbours and the ships must anchor up.

The island has no indigenous population, but is assigned the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code SJ, the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .no (.sj is allocated but not used) and data code JN. Its amateur radio call sign prefix is JX.

Jan Mayen