EMD ecologists gather over 200 tons of scrap metal on Arctic islands and in the Sea of Okhotsk
© RIA Novosti. Ramil Sitdikov

EMD ecologists gather over 200 tons of scrap metal on Arctic islands and in the Sea of Okhotsk

Military ecologists have wrapped up the cleanup season on Wrangel Island in the Arctic and on Bolshoi Shantar Island in the Sea of Okhotsk, gathering over 200 metric tons of scrap metal, the press service of the Eastern Military District (EMD) reported on Monday.

Earlier, it was reported that cleanup efforts could only be carried out on the island during the summer months due to the weather.

"We have completed work on Wrangel and Bolshoi Shantar islands. Military ecologists have compressed over 1,700 empty metal barrels with a total weight of about 55 metric tons on Bolshoi Shantar and dismantled a dilapidated building. They collected over 150 tons of scrap metal and packed it in special containers on Wrangel Island. About 2 ha of land were reclaimed," the message reads.

It also notes that the plan is to remove the scrap metal from Wrangel Island by the end of the year, and from Bolshoi Shantar next year. The environmentalists have already left the islands on helicopters with their equipment.

Wrangel Island is located in the Arctic Ocean between the East Siberian and the Chukotka seas. It is part of the Wrangel Island Nature Reserve and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Eastern Military District units have protected the airspace border of Russia on the island since October 2014. Military units were also stationed there until the 1990s.