Ahead of the Explorer Yachts Summit taking place on 13 November, award-winning filmmaker, environmentalist and foremost polar expert Jason Roberts from logistics company PolarX talks to BOAT about polar bears, Tom Cruise and the rise in permits to the Arctic and Antarctic. Roberts will be taking part in the panel debate 'Are Permits Holding Back Exploration?'
Jason Roberts grew up in Australia, spending his childhood between the city and the bush, which gave him a love of the outdoors and a talent for practical skills. A career in finance followed, becoming one of the youngest senior traders on the Australian Stock Exchange, before he stepped away to chase a different calling: adventure. What began as a short trek soon grew into travelling across the globe, including time living with the Sámi people in Norway. He eventually made his home in Longyearbyen, Svalbard - the world’s northernmost town - where he is still based now and where he developed his career and his logistics, travel and film production services company PolarX Ltd, specialising in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
Tell us what drew you to the Arctic and Antarctic?
I've lived in the Arctic for about 36 years. I come from a farming background in Australia, where you learn to turn your hands to everything. That led to my desire to explore, working different jobs as I went along, and this eventually led me to the Arctic.
When I reached the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, my first impression was that it was a super cool place at the end of the universe! It was then that I picked up a camera for the first time and started filming wildlife as another way to make money to pay for travelling. The rest of the time I spent exploring the region; snowmobiling, kayaking and skiing. Before long, I was being asked to advise on polar logistics, which is how PolarX was born.
You are often dubbed ‘Mr Polar Bear’. How did that name come about?
For the first 15 or so years living in Svalbard, I fell into photographing wildlife and creating nature documentaries. I shot mainly polar bears, they're such inquisitive, incredibly smart animals; spend time with them and you start to recognise that they all have different personalities. But you also have to respect them - they are one of the only predators on the planet that will literally hunt a human. I think that is the reason why everyone is so fascinated by them - they’re cute but deadly.
Photography and filming documentaries led you to founding PolarX to help other film companies as well as science expeditions...
Yes, and since 1994, when we got our first approach, we’ve assisted all types of expeditions and productions - from the BBC’s Frozen Planet and Blue Planet series to some of the world’s biggest feature films, such as Superman and working with Tom Cruise on Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. Soon after the first films, word of mouth spread and we started getting enquiries from superyacht owners and captains. Over the years, we’ve helped a number of large yachts such as V6 and Gene Machine with detailed, personalised logistics: this can be anything and everything, from providing navigational charts and helping with permits or advising on itineraries, to supplying essential kit, guards, local guides, ice pilots and support vessels (including our own vessel, PolarXplorer).
What makes your company uniquely positioned to operate in these environments?
What sets us apart is that we specialise in offering a different level of service than many tourist operators working in this region can’t offer - unless a request has a safety or environmental reason, we don’t say no, we make it happen. And working with yachts and the different departments on big-budget Hollywood films means we get lots of very unique requests!
Unlike many companies, we are also the only ones based where we work (we work the summer season in Antarctica and flip to the Arctic the rest of the year), which I believe gives us that expert knowledge and experience - I can help yacht owners have amazing one-off experiences because I know the area inside out.
One of the hot topics at the moment is the rise of environmental permits and safety regulations around the globe. What is your view?
Permits and regulations are becoming more common. Some people welcome them, others push back - I find myself somewhere in the middle. At times, especially in well-off countries like Norway, certain rules feel more symbolic than practical. Yet I also see the real need for others, particularly with the growing number of vessels coming to the polar regions. Not everyone gives advance notice; this summer, for instance, I had a boat show up with just three days’ warning before entering the Arctic.
I have to deal with a lot of paperwork, and the one set of regulations I’m not a fan of is the Polar Code as some of the stipulations can feel like a box-ticking exercise; like they have been drawn up by people in an office who have never been to the region. And now geopolitics are more volatile, the number of permits and regulations around immigration has exploded in the last two, three years - previously no one cared where you cruised.
When it comes to environmental permits, the challenge is sheer complexity. There are so many, and they differ not just from country to country, but sometimes even from region to region. In Svalbard, for instance, certain areas are open to visitors while others, like bird reserves, are strictly off-limits. It’s become a real minefield of rules - most of which have only emerged in the last 15 years. Greenland takes the opposite approach: there, the emphasis is less on environmental restrictions and more on safeguarding the rights of the indigenous population.
Different countries can have completely different approaches. On Svalbard, for example, we're not allowed to drive any motorised vehicles on land, unless in winter, when it's frozen and snow-covered because it destroys the tundra, and you have to carry a rifle for polar bear protection. In the Canadian Arctic, however, you’re not allowed into the polar bear regions without having a motorised vehicle for safety to get away, and you’re not allowed to carry a rifle. As I will mention in the summit discussion, permits can feel like a total minefield to navigate!
Jason will be a panellist at this year’s Explorer Yachts Summit, taking place at the Yacht Club de Monaco on 13 November 2025. The one-day event brings together leading experts from across the world and addresses the hottest topics in the exciting, multifaceted world of exploration yachting.
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