Franz Josef Land is an extensive archipelago of 191 islands located in the northeast Barents Sea region of the Arctic Ocean. They are situated north from the islands of Novaya Zemlya and 1,000 km south from the North Pole. The islands form the northernmost regions of the European Arctic and are bound by the waters of the open Arctic Ocean to the north, the Barents Sea to the south and by the Kara Sea to the southeast.