DanielDoer
Well-known member
I view this element of the trip as similar to Noah Strycker's Antarctica leg. That is being done to make the experience complete. I anticipate that they could have seen all the species already this year more easily. I suspect if someone sets out to break their record then they won't do this leg.
All the best
But there is one big difference between Noah's Antarctica trip and their visit of Svalbard: while you have to skip regions and therefore species during a worldwide attempt, you should not let go of "regular" WP species during a WP Big Year. So apart from the great landscape and experiences there (they just appreciated their views of Walrusses - correct word for more of them? - on facebook) Svalbard is good to visit for some specialties within birds as Ivory gull as well.