Circumpolar Musings: Expeditions, field trips, tours

Geography in the News: Iditarod, The race of Arctic champions

Amanda Graham — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:31:11 GMT

(Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner/Geography in the News&tm;, 3 March 2013) -- One of the world’s most grueling races, Alaska’s Iditarod Dog Sled Race, began today, March 3rd. The history and geography of this magnificent race excite followers all over the world as the race is one of the most challenging for humans and their teams of dogs. Sixty-six teams registered for the race and many are repeat entries. The Iditarod is an annual race through Alaska where mushers and teams of dogs cover about 1,150 miles (1,853 km) in eight to 15 days. The Iditarod competition began in 1973 as a test of the best dogs and mushers in the state and has evolved into a highly competitive and popular race. Teams often encounter blizzards with whiteout conditions, aggressive wild game animals, and sub-zero weather and gale-force winds that can create wind chill temperatures reaching minus 100 degrees F (-75 degrees C).

NOAA’s Coast Survey plans for new Arctic nautical charts

Amanda Graham — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 21:23:50 GMT

(NOAA press release, 28 February 2013) -- NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey has issued an updated Arctic Nautical Charting Plan, as a major effort to improve inadequate chart coverage for Arctic areas experiencing increasing vessel traffic due to ice diminishment. The update came after consultations with maritime interests and the public, as well as with other federal, state, and local agencies. “As multi-year sea ice continues to disappear, vessel traffic in the Arctic is on the rise,” said Rear Admiral Gerd Glang, NOAA Coast Survey director. “This is leading to new maritime concerns about adequate charts, especially in areas increasingly transited by the offshore oil and gas industry and cruise liners,” Glang said. Commercial vessels depend on NOAA to provide charts and publications with the latest depth information, aids to navigation, accurate shorelines, and other features required for safe navigation in U.S. waters. But many regions of Alaska’s coastal areas have never had full bottom bathymetric surveys, and some haven’t had more than superficial depth measurements since Captain Cook explored the northern regions in the late 1700s. “Ships need updated charts with precise and accurate measurements,” said Capt. Doug Baird, chief of Coast Survey’s marine chart division. “We don’t have decades to get it done. Ice diminishment is here now.” NOAA plans to create 14 new charts to complement the existing chart coverage.

Alaska Fish & Wildlife to survey WWII debris, contamination on Attu [mp3]

Amanda Graham — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 07:46:24 GMT

(Kelsey Gobroski/KTOO Juneau, 20 February 2013) -- Attu Island is overdue for some spring cleaning. Seventy years after World War II, the island is still littered with shards of old Coke bottles, lead-based batteries, leaking fuel drums and unexploded artillery. This summer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the remote island as a refuge, will survey the extent of World War II debris and contamination. As KTOO news intern Kelsey Gobroski reports, the entire ecosystem could be affected by the decades of pollution. Listen to the full story

Notes from the pole of cold

Amanda Graham — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:40:34 GMT

(Maxim Shemetov/Reuters, 18 February 2013) -- Oymyakon valley, Russia - One loses all bearings when faced with the shroud of white that obscures all things mid January in the Siberian city of Yakutsk. Only the traffic lights and gas pipelines overhanging the roads help you to find your way. Wrapped in frosty fog the city life seems frozen in a sleepy half-light. It is -48 C (-54 degrees Fahrenheit) outside. Before venturing out, I put on two layers of thermal underwear, trousers, two-sweaters, pants winterized up to my waist, and huge low-temperature boots. I pull close the hood of my down jacket and fasten it so that only my eyes are exposed. Lastly, I slip on two pairs of gloves and head for the entrance hall – the airlock. Now only the ice-bound door separates me from the cold. There is Space outside and I feel like an astronaut. However I do not have enough time to freeze today – the minibus is waiting for me at the corner and I pile in with my gear. Our routes lies along a Stalin-era road that is officially called “Kolyma Federal Highway”. Locals call it “the road on bones” after the thousands of Gulag prisoners who built it in the middle of the 20th century perished. ... After two days on the road, we finally arrive in the Oymyakon valley – the Pole of the Cold. This is the coldest known place in the Northern hemisphere. Thermometers registered a record chill of -67.7 degrees Celsius (-88 degrees Fahrenheit) in 1933 – shortly after weather monitoring began here in the end of the 1920s. [Follow the title link for Shemetov's pictures from the trip.]

The perils of early Arctic exploration

Amanda Graham — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:20:20 GMT

(Cathy Hunter/National Geographic News Watch, 14 December 2012) -- [The thirty-three founders of the National Geographic Society were an adventurous and accomplished group. They included scientists, explorers, a journalist and a superintendent of the National Zoo. In recognition of the National Geographic Society’s upcoming 125th anniversary this series takes a look at their stories.] A.W. Greely’s 1881 Arctic expedition tragically demonstrated the hardships and deadliness of attempts to explore the Far North. Despite his achievements before and after the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, his reputation would forever be tainted. ... In 1881, Greely was in charge of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition to the Arctic in order to establish one of a chain of international circumpolar weather stations. This expedition began as part of the first International Polar Year, reached the high latitudes of Canada north of Baffin Bay as well as crossing Ellesmere Island for the first time, charting parts of the coast of Greenland, and achieving a new northern record of 83 degrees, 24 minutes. Unfortunately, two relief ships failed to appear. Commander Winfield Scott Schley at the head of a third relief vessel finally made it–but by then it was 1884, and 18 of the 25 men had died.

Boy discovers well-preserved mammoth

Amanda Graham — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 19:42:41 GMT

(IOL SciTech, 5 October 2012) -- Moscow - A boy living in Russia's remote north has found the well-preserved remains of a 30,000-year-old adult mammoth, according to media reports on Thursday. The discovery was made near a weather station in the eastern Taimyr region, some 3,000 kilometres north-east of Moscow. News reports identified the boy as Yevgeny Salinder, son of a couple working at the Sopkarga polar weather station. Salinder reportedly discovered the animal during a walk. News reports said the remains were that of a male mammoth aged 15 or 16 years, and that its skin, meat, fat hump and organs were extremely well-preserved. According to the Pravda.ru news website, the last time mammoth remains of such quality were discovered in Russia was in 1901. Scientists used axes, picks and a steam-blaster to melt the permafrost in an extraction operation lasting a week, the report said. The mammoth probably died in the summer because it lacked an undercoat and had a large reserve of fat, the report quoted Aleksei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as saying.

Government of Canada’s search for lost Franklin ships delivers numerous collateral results

Amanda Graham — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 18:01:10 GMT

(Government of Canada press release via Heritage Daily, 21 September 2012) -- The Honourable Peter Kent, Minister of Environment and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, today gave an update on this summer’s Arctic archaeological survey led by Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Service to find the ill-fated 1845-1846 Franklin Expedition vessels: HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. “The search for the lost Franklin vessels continues, but I can unequivocally say that this year’s survey was by far our most successful one to date,” said Minister Kent. “I would like to congratulate all our amazing partners who were part of this Canadian-led research team. They reached new heights with this project, and I look forward to seeing what new possibilities open up in time for next year’s continued search.” This year, the search team ruled out more than 400 square kilometres in Canada’s vast Arctic waters, almost tripling the coverage of past field seasons and further narrowing the search for the elusive wrecks of the Franklin Expedition. With almost four weeks spent in the Arctic, the team employed a multitude of scientific data that will also greatly benefit Canada’s understanding and knowledge of the Arctic. Working from both the research vessel, Martin Bergmann, supplied by the Arctic Research Foundation, and Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the survey time was significantly extended compared to previous years. In addition to Parks Canada’s underwater archaeologists searching for the Franklin vessels, the broader project team included the Arctic Charting and Mapping Pilot Project, led by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Canadian Hydrographic Service. This project allowed for the collection of data for the production of official navigational charts in the Arctic, while supporting, marine archaeology and ecosystem management objectives.

Russia’s input to Arctic exploration

Amanda Graham — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 21:19:56 GMT

(The Voice of Russia, 2 September 2012) -- Many centuries of studies and exploration of the Arctic territories are filled with multitudes of vivid, large-scale and, at times, dramatic events. The Arctic map is a hymn to man’s spirit. It shows the names of islands, gulfs and mountains that immortalize their discoverers. It is in large part due to Russian explorers that the lands of the North became an adequately studied and accessible part of the globe. Of course, explorers from other countries also studied the Arctic but it rarely became a tradition in a full l sense of this word. Many generations of Russian pioneers and researchers contributed colossal efforts, expertise funds and often their lives to the exploration of the Arctic region. In their quest for the North Pole they discovered new lands, seas, islands and archipelagos. Thanks to Russian explorers mankind learned about the existence of Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands, the Chukchi Peninsula, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Alaska. The Russians were the first to prove that Asia and America were separated by a strait. Russian polar navigators purposefully explored Arctic sea and river routes, studied the Arctic Ocean and played a prominent part in charting the Northern Sea Route. Since 1914 Russian airmen have been conquering the airspace above the Arctic.

Healy 1202 research cruise

Amanda Graham — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 22:31:17 GMT

(Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping Joint Hydrographic Center, 6 September 2012) -- A blog detailing the daily progress of the Healy as researchers study the Arctic Ocean and map the sea floor. Blog post from September 5, 2012: Today we returned to the seafloor knoll that was partially sounded on August 31 to fully map the feature and determine if it rises above the 2500 m depth contour. (The 2500-m contour is a key element in establishing limits of the extended continental shelf.) Our multibeam mapping determined that the highest point of the knoll is about 2690 m deep and thus does not give us a 2500-m contour to work with. Nonetheless, we now have a detailed survey of the knoll to replace the vague shape on the existing maps. After we acquire the multibeam echo sounder data, our data processing watch team “processes” the data. In data processing, we confirm that the ship’s position and attitude data are valid and we clean erroneous depth values from the sounding data. These erroneous depth values can arise from interference from other echo sounders, bubbles or ice under the ship, mechanical noise from the ship’s machinery, or often just from weak echoes returning from the seafloor. The cleaned depth values are combined into a digital depth data grid for display and analysis.

Arctic Row: Preparing to depart

Amanda Graham — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:02:27 GMT

(Collin West/Bloomberg Businessweek, 12 July 2010) -- This blog will capture my personal experience as our team of four attempts “one of the last great firsts.” If successful, our crossing will be the first rowing expedition to travel from continent to continent for a total of 1,300 miles. What will we learn about ourselves and the Arctic along the way? Visit this blog regularly to find out as we explore this question in real time. But today, the Arctic Row expedition finally starts. I am sitting on the first of four flights as we make our way to Inuvik, a tiny town that sits 2 degrees north of the Arctic Circle. Our first stop is Edmonton, Canada. My excitement builds as the towns get progressively smaller. While in Inuvik, we will make final preparations on our boat, including packing our supplies and film gear for our documentary Into Thin Ice. Then we will drop our boat in the MacKenzie River about 70 miles north of the Arctic Ocean and commence our record-breaking attempt.

Canada's military divers to explore Franklin-era wreck

Amanda Graham — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:01:19 GMT

(CBC News via Eye on the Arctic, 16 April 2102) -- Divers with the Canadian military will make their way under the sea ice to explore a Franklin-era shipwreck. The exercise is part of the annual Operation Nunalivut, which takes place in the High Arctic near Resolute. Divers from three provinces will head down with remote-operated vehicles to look at the HMS Breadalbane. In 1853, the ship sank off Beechey Island in Lancaster Sound. It had been part of the search for John Franklin's lost ships, the Erebus and Terror, and their crews. The Breadalbane's crew had to abandon ship when it became trapped in an ice floe, and the crew was later rescued by another ship. "We don't think anybody's conducted any dive operations on it in about 10 years, and the last time that they did it looked to be in really good shape," said Lt. Col. Glen MacNeil, who is leading the operation. "You could clearly see the outline of the ship and the masts were still there on it with sails so it'll be interesting to see what type of images we get." The Breadalbane is now a national historic site of Canada. Operation Nunalivut ends May 1.

Military operation to start in Resolute

Amanda Graham — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:59:44 GMT

(CBC News, 8 April 2012) -- The Canadian military’s Operation Nunalivut starts in Resolute, Nunavut, on Tuesday. About 150 people, including Canadian Rangers and military personnel, will participate in the exercise. The challenging High Arctic environment and the potentially severe weather will set the stage for two missions. "One is in the vicinity of Banshee Island, enabling search and rescue training combined with a dive operation," said Brig.-Gen. Guy Hamel, the Canadian Forces' commander in the North. "There will be also be a northern ground patrol scenario that we allow the Canadian Rangers to both exercise sovereignty and practice aerial search techniques." Operation Nunalivut will run until May 1. This will mark the Canadian Forces' first official return to Resolute since a First Air passenger jet crashed near the community on Aug. 20. That crash, which claimed the lives of 12 of the 15 people on board, happened while the military was taking part in Operation Nanook in the area. Operation Nunalivut is one of three major military exercises that take place in Canada's North every year.

Doctors, dentists flying into western Alaska villages to help

Amanda Graham — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:12:00 GMT

(Alaska Dispatch, 1 April 2012) -- Hundreds of doctors, optometrists, dentists and veterinarians will fan out across 16 villages in western Alaska beginning April 9 in a joint military and medical readiness exercise called Operation Arctic Care. This will be the 18th year of the program coordinated by the Norton Sound Health Corporation. “The medical care provided by the doctors and nurses is usually unavailable in the villages,” Pattie Lillie of the Norton Sound Health Corporation said in a press release. “Health aides and mid-level providers see patients in the village and treat to the degree they can, and anything beyond their scope is referred to Nome or Anchorage. Having a doctor on site for even four or five days can make a difference.” Some 250 government and military medical professionals will fan out from Nome to smaller villages. Most are only accessible by air, so the Alaska National Guard will use an array of aircraft to ferry the medical workers and supplies in and out. Among them: UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters; C-23 Sherpas, a small military transport plane; C-17 Globemasters, a four-engine military transport plane able to carry large equipment; and C-130 Hercules, a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. “The military gets an opportunity to conduct deployment training in a non-threatening environment,” Lt. Col. Sharolyn Lange, task force medical commander, said in a press release. “And we have the opportunity to assist underserved citizens living in rural Alaska.”

Northern Sea Route hydrographic survey planned

Amanda Graham — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:10:20 GMT

(News release via MarineLink.com, 1 April 2012) -- Russia [is] to commission Northern Sea Route hydrographic surveys to identify safe-water routes for large ships. Updated charts of the Northern Sea Route without the 'white spots' will be created in 2015-2016, in addition, the Ministry of Transport is planning to organize this year's transfer of jurisdiction from the Ministry of Defence to FSUE 'Hydrographic Enterprise' or in its own subordinate structure, said the deputy director of the Department of State Policy for Maritime and River Transport of Russia, Vitaly Klyuev. "We will increase the hydrographic work in the Arctic to the year 2015-2016 to get a real picture of the depths for safe navigation," he said at a news conference in RIA Novosti, devoted to the preparation of the Russian exposition at the World exhibition "Expo-2012" to be held from May to August in South Korea. According to Klyuyev, surveying the work in the Arctic will be done in conjunction with SCF and Rosatomflot. 'White spots' (areas without depth data) on the charts will not be covered throughout the whole region, but survey work will be concentrated on the Northern Sea Route in the interests of the safe navigation of ship traffic. According to Director of Non-Profit Partnership for the Coordination of Northern Sea Route Vladimir Mickle, over the past 20 years, soundings in the Arctic have been limited because of a reduction in the hydrographic budget. However, in 2011 funding was restored, and for the first time it was sufficient enough for seven survey ships to work on the route.

Arctic explorer’s magnetic measurements ring true

Amanda Graham — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:01:51 GMT

(Ned Rozell / Alaska Science Forum via Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 1 April 2012) -- FAIRBANKS - More than a century ago, Roald Amundsen and his crew were the first to sail through the Northwest Passage, along the way leaving footprints in Eagle, Nome and Sitka. Pioneering that storied route was a dream of Amundsen’s since his boyhood in Norway, but he also performed enduring science on the three-year voyage of the Gjøa. Amundsen, from Norway, was 30 years old when, in the early 1900s, he envisioned and then executed this plan: “With a small vessel and a few companions, to penetrate into the regions around earth’s north magnetic pole, and by a series of accurate observations, extending over a period of two years, to relocate the pole observed by Sir James Ross in 1831.” ... Though the conquest of the Northwest Passage brought Amundsen worldwide fame, his devotion to science was real. Instead of blasting through the passage, he and his crew halted the Gjøa to spend the winter in a bay off King William Island in Canada’s Arctic. There, they set up a base called “Gjøahaven,” or Gjøa Harbor. They killed 100 reindeer for winter meat to feed man and dog, met the local natives, exchanged their wool clothes for furs and watched the ice form on the ocean in early October 1903. They also built a magnetic observatory out of shipping crates. They held it together with nails containing no iron. They covered the hut with tundra to keep out the light, because photographic paper recorded their magnetic observations. Inside the building were four instruments sensitive to variations of Earth’s magnetic field. A few oil lamps heated and lit the observatory, which was so snug that Amundsen and crewman Gustav Wiik probably both suffered heart-muscle damage from carbon monoxide poisoning during the 19 months they faithfully tended the instruments. ... The data set is so good that Charles Deehr, a space physicist and aurora forecaster at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute, who posts forecasts of northern lights at http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast, said the information is similar to data he gets today from satellites parked in the solar wind, a flow of the sun’s particles that excites the aurora into action.

Tiny polar creature must deal with competition

Amanda Graham — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 23:20:26 GMT

(Nina Kristiansen/Science Nordic, 30 March 2012) -- The notion about Arctic organisms shutting down during winter has been taken for granted until some tiny copepods proved differently. “We don’t know so much about life up there in the Arctic waters during winter because our research voyages are conducted during the summer season,” says Elisabeth Halvorsen, a marine system ecologist at the University of Tromsø. A year-round monitoring station on Svalbard made some observations that caught the attention of scientists. Certain activities were continuing during long Arctic night. This motivated Halvorsen to join in on the research voyage “The Polar Night Cruise” in January this year. It’s rare for researchers to visit distant arctic regions at that time of year. “We were lucky. The extreme storms dubbed “Dagmar” and “Berit” kept the sea from icing over fairly far north,” says Halvorsen. She found that it was far from all peace and quiet and hibernation up there. “On the contrary, we witnessed a great deal of activity. The object of my studies, the copepod Calanus hyperboreus, was already in spring vigour in January.” C. hyperboreus is the largest of three species of the calinus genus of copepods found in Arctic waters. But it isn’t big, only four or five millimetres long. Despite its modest size, the C. hyperboreus is a vital source of food for fish and seabirds. It is most predominant in the Greenland Sea and the Arctic Ocean.

'Frozen Planet' went the distance to get scenes of polar worlds

Amanda Graham — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:13:51 GMT

(Yvonne Villarreal/Los Angeles Times, 25 March 2012) -- There's a world out there where a finger of ice can destroy everything in its path. Where strobes of green light dance across the sunless sky. Where unicorn-like creatures roam the sea. And it's not the stuff of CGI-loaded blockbuster fantasy film. It's "Frozen Planet, "a seven-part Discovery Channel and BBC mega-series exploring the Earth's arcane polar regions. (It premiered last week, but its first installment will repeat Sunday just before the second episode.) Made by the documentary team behind 2006's groundbreaking "Planet Earth" and narrated by Alec Baldwin, "Frozen Planet" is epic in scope and cinematic in execution, demonstrating how far nature documentary series have come. "This is not your grandfather's 'Wild Kingdom,'" said "Frozen Planet" executive producer Alastair Fothergill, referring to the show launched in the '60s that studied wild animals in their natural habitat. "There's been a long history and lots of different techniques that have been tried since then to document nature." ... Nine months of preproduction research went into the project, with a 10- to 15-page script set as a guideline. "We had to work out how we spend our money," Fothergill said. "And we try to be calculated and film novelty, because you don't want the dedicated natural history audience to say, 'We've seen every wild beast in Serengeti.' The bar is constantly getting higher and higher." To get those scenes required much trial and error — and a lot of waiting. Cameramen battled howling winds and sub-zero temperatures to shoot a never-before-caught-on-camera "wave wash," in which a pod of orcas cooperate to wash a seal off an ice floe — in a six-week trip, they witnessed more than 20 before getting the image viewers see. And director Chadden Hunter and his team scoured Wood Buffalo National Park for weeks, lugging equipment while wearing snowshoes and cross-country skis, to capture the dramatic scene of wolves closing in on bison prey that made it into the series. ...

Beijing sends icebreaker to Barents

Amanda Graham — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 22:53:30 GMT

(Thomas Nilsen/Barents Observer, 13 March 2012) -- China is eyeing the Arctic and increases its presence by announcing a research expedition all along the north coast of Siberia towards the Barents Sea. The icebreaker "Xue Long" sails for the mission in July and Beijing hopes the huge icebreaker will reach the Barents Sea before returning in September. “If the expedition goes according to the plan it will also be the first time for a Chinese icebreaker to reach the Barents Sea,” says Liu Cigui, director of China’s State Oceanic Administration to the news agency Xinhua, reports RIA Novosti. Scientists aboard will carry out oceanic, atmospheric, sea-ice and marine life research along the Northern Sea Route. The icebreaker has earlier sailed the Northwest Passage and done research in the Arctic waters outside the coast of Alaska and Canada. Chinese researchers have earlier criticized the Arctic coastal states for excluding other nations in the north. Last autumn, BarentsObserver quoted an article published in Beijing Review stating “It is unimaginable that non-Arctic states will remain users of Arctic shipping routes and consumers of Arctic energy without playing a role in the decision-making process.” In addition to sending the icebreaker "Xue Long" (Snow Dragon) along the north coast of Siberia towards the Barents Sea, Beijing will also send Arctic researchers to the Yellow River Station on Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.

Healy, Renda 115 miles away from Nome after two days

Amanda Graham — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:24:36 GMT

(Matthew Smith/KNOM - Nome, 23 January 2012 ) -- The tanker Renda and the Coast Guard cutter Healy are 115 miles south-southwest of Nome after beginning their return journey through the ice two days ago. Ice conditions have been easier when compared to their initial trip north, but the ships are not yet halfway: they still have more than 300 miles of ice to go. Kathleen Cole, the Sea Ice Program Leader with the National Weather Service, says the ice has continued to expand in the days since the ships first traveled through it: the ice grew by 60 miles during their weeklong anchor in Nome, and could grow by another 60 to 90 miles over the next ten days. Guiding the Renda through the ice is an experienced Russian captain who says this kind of fuel delivery mission is no big deal in his home country.

Heavy Bering Sea ice slows delivery of fuel to Nome

Amanda Graham — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:15:03 GMT

(Mary Pemberton/Anchorage Daily News, 10 January 2012) -- Shifting ice in the Bering Sea is dramatically slowing a Russian tanker's mission to deliver fuel to the iced-in community of Nome. A Coast Guard spokesman said Monday that an icebreaker and a fuel tanker are encountering "some really dynamic ice" that is slowing the mission and sometimes forcing both vessels to come to a complete stop. But, "As long as we're making progress, we're going to Nome," said Anchorage Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class David Mosley. A worst case scenario would be that the ice becomes too much for any progress. But Mosley doubts that would be the case since the Coast Guard cutter Healy has the ability to make it all the way to Nome. Jason Evans, chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp., the company arranging for the fuel delivery by Russian tanker, had no qualms Monday. "I think we are getting to Nome," he said, adding he will be there for the arrival. Nome is in need of diesel and unleaded gasoline after a fall fuel delivery by barge was delayed by a storm that swept western Alaska. By the time the weather had improved, Nome was iced-in and a barge delivery was impossible. ... The Healy, an icebreaker designed to move through ice several feet thick, is leading the 370-foot Renda, a Russian tanker loaded with 1.3 million gallons of petroleum products. The plan was for the two ships to deliver fuel to Nome on Monday, but because of the icy conditions, that arrival date is off. Coast Guard officials are not saying when they expect the vessels to arrive, but it could be later this week. "The dynamics of things make it a pretty intense transit," Cmdr. Greg Tlapa, the executive officer of the Healy, told The Associated Press by satellite phone Monday afternoon as the icebreaker was about 111 miles south-southwest of Nome. ... The ships are in constant communication, with the Healy relaying over VHF radio any speed or propulsion changes and what they are seeing ahead. There's an active duty Coast Guardsman on the Healy who is fluent in Russian, Tlapa said. There's an Alaska marine pilot on board the Renda, and the vessel agent speaks English. "It's slow and steady, but we're making good progress," Tlapa said.

Tons of scrap to be transported from Russian Arctic in 2012

Amanda Graham — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:38:12 GMT

(Trude Pettersen/Barents Observer, 4 January 2012) -- Russia plans to continue its large-scaled clean-up of Arctic islands in 2012. As much as 18 000 tons of scrap metal will be shipped out through the Nenets port of Amderma. Russia wants to clean up the environmental mess on its Arctic Islands and has allocated hundreds of millions of rubles for the work over the coming years. Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment plans to continue reversing accumulated environmental damage in the Arctic. In 2012 Russia will focus on cleaning up polluted areas on Svalbard and Amderma. Between 12,000 and 18,000 tons of scrap metal will be shipped from the port of Amderma, Deputy Minister Rinat Gizatullin said according to the Nenets paper Nyaryana Vynder. Amderma is planned to become a key site in the development of offshore oil and gas fields in the western part of the Russian Arctic and an important base for traffic along the Northern Sea Route. According to preliminary estimates, the total polluted area around Amderma exceeds 82 square kilometers and the local scrap stockpiles may amount to more than 114 000 tons. The Arctic clean-up started in 2011, when the research vessel Mikhail Somov transported more than 1800 empty fuel barrels collected on the Wrangel Island and on Franz Josef Land to Arkhangelsk. According to the Russian information and analytical portal Arctic Universe, there are still some 250,000 barrels holding some 40 to 60,000 tons of oil products on Franz Josef Land. Also, some additional one million empty barrels are dumped near the now closed down bases. Other kinds of waste include abounded [sic] aircrafts, rusty broken radar stations, different kind of Arctic vehicles and other leftover garbage. The Russian government has allocated 740 million rubles to Arctic environmental cleanup in 2011 and 2012.

China due to become Alaska's top export customer

Amanda Graham — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:16:03 GMT

(Mary Pemberton/Anchorage Daily News, 1 January 2012) -- A Russian tanker's mission to deliver petroleum products to an iced-in Alaska city cleared a large hurdle when a waiver was granted allowing the loading of hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline at a port in the Aleutian Islands. The 370-foot tanker is due to arrive in the fishing port of Dutch Harbor at 6 p.m. Monday, the Coast Guard said Sunday. The waiver of the federal Jones Act granted Friday was crucial to the tanker completing its mission of delivering petroleum products to Nome, a city of about 3,500 residents on Alaska's western coastline. A huge storm this fall delayed delivery by barge and by the time the weather had improved Nome was iced-in. There are a variety of petroleum products on hand in Nome, but it doesn't have enough gasoline and diesel fuel to last until spring. The <e>Renda</e> left Russia in mid-December and headed to South Korea where it picked up more than 1 million gallons of diesel fuel. The plan was to have the tanker pick up 400,000 gallons of gasoline in Japan but officials with fuel supplier Vitus Marine LLC were told the tanker was too small to be docked. Another plan was put in place to have the fuel loaded from another ship but a storm prevented that from happening. The decision was made to have the tanker pick up fuel in Dutch Harbor and then go to Nome. However, that plan needed a Jones Act waiver. The act is designed to protect the domestic shipping industry. It says that no merchandise shall be transported between points in the U.S. in a foreign-owned vessel. Vitus Marine CEO Mark Smith said last week that the tanker was making good progress, more than 250 miles a day. The Coast Guard said Sunday there were no reported problems.

Inuit sleds being built for Arctic sovereignty patrols

Amanda Graham — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:05:53 GMT

(CBC News, 30 November 2011) -- The future of Arctic sovereignty will be riding on traditional Inuit wooden sleds that are being assembled by a group of Canadian Rangers in Yellowknife. The nine Rangers have been tasked with building more than 30 qamutiks — sleds that are traditionally used to haul supplies over snow and ice — for use in guarding remote northern regions and promoting Canada's claim of sovereignty over the Arctic. The Rangers, who were commissioned by the Canadian Ranger Patrol for the sled surveillance project, all hail from Nunavut and include six people chosen from Clyde River and three from Pond Inlet. "We grew up with dog teams and we would build qamutiks for dogs to pull … but today the qamutiks are pulled by snow machines and we're making smaller versions of qamutiks," Elijah Panipakoocho of Clyde River told CBC News in Inuktitut. The select members of the group were chosen based on their skill and craftsmanship, said David Suqslaq, who is in charge of the operation scheduled to last until Dec. 9. Suqslaq, who is from Pond Inlet, said he will oversee the qamutik construction to ensure his crew is "working sections like cross-pieces" to build the sleds properly. The Rangers are trained residents in northern communities who provide support during military and search and rescue operations.

A mysterious fork leads to the story of the infamous Greely Expedition

Amanda Graham — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:43:45 GMT

(Cassie Mancer/O Say Can You See? – National Museum of American History, 4 November 2011) -- This story starts with a fork. As a contractor with the Military History Collections Inventory Project, my job is to count things. ... The inventory process requires that we check an object’s unique catalog number, track its location, take measurements and photographs, and then write a short description of the object. The fork itself has little to distinguish it from the other standard-issue Army silverware in our collection. The tag reads: “Fork owned by Lieut. Kislingbury, used at Cape Sabine by Brainard.” ... I wanted to confirm that I was reading the handwriting correctly before I updated our description, so I began with an Internet search. That is how I learned the story of the 25 men of the Greely Expedition, also known as the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition. ... Second Lieutenant Frederick Kislingbury, the owner of the fork, was second-in-command of the expedition party, and Sergeant David L. Brainard was chief of the enlisted men. Brainard and two companions would go on to accomplish the secondary goal of reaching a new "Farthest North." The expedition established a research station named Fort Conger at Lady Franklin Bay and began collecting hourly meteorological measurements such as temperature, wind speed, and barometric pressure. ... The fork has made a lasting impression on our team, and it’s especially poignant that the fork is from an expedition where so many died of starvation. The legacy of the tragic Greely Expedition remains relevant today, as the scientific measurements the members took while enduring unrelenting hardships are now being used by scientists to study climate change. ... In addition to the fork, the Division also has records and personal papers, photographs, flag fragments from Lady Franklin Bay, and scientific specimens from the expedition. Many of these objects were donated to the museum by David Brainard, others by John P. Kislingbury, Lieutenant Kislingbury’s brother; additional objects related to the expedition were loaned to the museum by Greely’s children.

New dinosaur species discovered in Alaska, named in honor of Ross Perot

Amanda Graham — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 06:29:09 GMT

(Yereth Rosen/Alaska Dispatch, 8 November 2011) -- When paleontologist Tony Fiorillo made one of the most stunning dinosaur discoveries in Alaska, a NOVA television crew was there to capture the moment. But it now turns out that the skull he unearthed in front of the cameras in 2006, a highlight of the 2008 NOVA documentary “Arctic Dinosaurs,” was more significant than previously thought. The skull and associated bones from a steep bank of the Colville River in Alaska's Arctic are from a species of horned dinosaur that has not been documented anywhere else. Years of research by Fiorillo, curator of the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, and painstaking reconstruction by Ronald Tykoski, the museum’s chief fossil preparator, confirmed that this was a type of pachyrhinosaurus -- a relative of triceratops -- that had not been found anywhere else. “Obviously, it’s a tremendous thrill to have that level of photo-documentation at the moment of discovery. And this enhances it. This is the wildest dream possible,” he said. They have named the dinosaur species Pachyrhinosaurs perotorum, in honor of former presidential candidate Ross Perot and his family, major benefactors of the Dallas museum. Fiorillo and Tykoski detailed their findings in a scientific journal, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, and over the weekend in Las Vegas at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting.

Rare coin gives currency to Chinese-First Nations link

Amanda Graham — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:19:42 GMT

(Randy Boswell/Postmedia News in The Vancouver Sun, 31 October 2011) -- A 340-year-old coin from China has been unearthed by archeologists near a planned gold mine in the Yukon, shedding fresh light on historic trade links between 17th-century Chinese merchants, Russian fur traders and First Nations in the northwest corner of North America. The coin is etched with traditional Chinese characters indicating it was minted during the Qing Dynasty reign of Emperor Kangxi, who ruled China from 1662 to 1722. But other information stamped on the money piece — which has a large central hole and four smaller ones — shows it was minted in China's Zhili province between 1667 and 1671. The coin was discovered during a dig near Western Copper and Gold Corp.'s proposed Casino mine site about 300 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse. A heritage impact assessment for the Vancouver mining company was being conducted by Ecofor Consulting Ltd., based in B.C. and the Yukon, when the find was made. Ecofor team leader James Mooney spotted the metal object as a co-worker dug into the ground on a height of land south of the Yukon River. "I was less than a metre from our archeologist Kirby Booker when she turned over the first shovel of topsoil and I caught sight of something dangling from the turf," Mooney said in a statement. "It was the coin — the neatest discovery I've ever been part of." Subsequent research revealed that it was just the third historic Chinese coin ever found in the Yukon, though many more have been recovered at archeological sites in coastal Alaska. "The coin adds to the body of evidence that the Chinese market connected with Yukon First Nations through Russian and coastal Tlingit trade intermediaries during the late 17th and 18th centuries, and perhaps as early as the 15th century," the statement said. Russian traders seeking furs from North American wildlife — including the sea otter, seal and beaver — are known to have exchanged tobacco, tea, kettles and other goods (some obtained from Chinese traders) with the Tlingit peoples of coastal Alaska.

Umka: A domed city in the Russian Arctic

Amanda Graham — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:33:16 GMT

(Malte Humpert/Arctic Institute, Center for Circumpolar Security Studies, 28 October 2011) -- Plans for the construction of an enclosed ultra-modern city on the New Siberian Island group are taking shape. The Arctic city of Umka, to be located a mere 1,000 miles from the North Pole, will house up to 5,000 residents, primarily soldiers, border guards, scientists, and oil and gas industry workers. The costs of the project are estimated at between $6.4 - $8 billion. According to the architects Umka will be a "fully functioning city and research facility, complete with its own self-sufficient food production, a near-zero waste handling system." The settlement will be modeled after a fictional Moon city or an isolated space station and will allow researchers to live in the region for longer periods of time rather than for short expeditions. The residents will be completely isolated from the harsh environment and live under a vast climate-controlled dome 1.2 kilometers long and 800 meter wide. The now-released designs bear resemblance to the Biosphere 2 project constructed in Oracle, Arizona between 1987 and 1991. This artificial, materially closed ecosystem was used to study the possible use of closed biospheres in, e.g., space colonization.

Olympic twins - the Borlées - set for arctic trek

Amanda Graham — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:09:23 GMT

(BBC Sport, 21 October 2011) -- The 2012 Olympics are still eight months away but for Belgium's identical athlete twins - the Borlées - the road to London is about to take a diversion, across an Icelandic glacier. Kevin and Jonathan will spend a week trekking 80km across the Langjökull ice cap, climbing to 1,300m as temperatures drop to -15°C. The 400m runners are taking part in a team-building exercise with seven other potential 4x400m Belgian team mates. Check the BBC site for updates on their progress.

Franklin ships remain unfound

Amanda Graham — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 23:03:33 GMT

(CBC News, 26 August 2011) -- Archeologists in the Arctic hoping to find Sir John Franklin's long-lost ships neared the end of their latest search Friday with no shipwreck in sight. It appears HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, two of the most sought-after wrecks in Canada, will remain undiscovered for now. Parks Canada archeologists spent the last six days combing an area west of King William Island, where explorers seeking the Northwest Passage stopped or, in the case of Franklin, got stranded in ice. Erebus and Terror vanished in the High Arctic more than 160 years ago, along with the famous British explorer and 128 crew. This was the third year of a three-year-program to find Erebus and Terror, but searches for the two ships and remnants of Franklin's failed 1845 expedition began almost immediately after he disappeared. Marc-Andre Bernier, Parks Canada's chief of underwater archeology, says it is too soon to say whether the search program might be extended beyond this year. Crews in two boats have been using sonar to map the ocean floor, he said. But a plan to use a new underwater robotic vehicle fell apart. "We weren't able to deploy it," he said. "We're hoping if we continue next year, that's going to be available, but unfortunately for this year, we ran into some technical problems at the last minute, so that actually could not be used on this survey" Even if Erebus and Terror remain lost, Bernier said, the expedition, run from the coast guard icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier, has been useful for mapping the area. Similar searches were conducted in 2010 and 2008, when small bits of copper sheeting were uncovered that may have belonged to Franklin's ships. A search effort was called off in 2009 because Parks Canada could not secure a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker to assist with the project.

Expedition sets sail to survey Arctic depths

Amanda Graham — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:57:44 GMT

(Our Amazing Planet/MSNBC, 13 July 2011) -- A ship expedition is under way to conduct the first modern-day survey of seafloor depths along a vast region of the Arctic Ocean. Water depth in the Kotzebue Sound, off northwestern Alaska, hasn't been studied in more than a century — since the United States bought Alaska in 1867. The 230-foot Fairweather, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) survey vessel, set off from Kodiak, Alaska, on July 7 and will spend two months at sea, measuring ocean depths across roughly 530 square miles in a region that is seeing a marked increase in ship traffic. Satellite measurements that began in 1979 show that Arctic sea ice cover has been declining steadily. As sea ice has disappeared, ships have taken advantage of the open water. "The reduction in Arctic ice coverage is leading over time to a growth of vessel traffic in the Arctic, and this growth is driving an increase in maritime concerns," said NOAA Corps Capt. David Neander, commanding officer of the Fairweather, in a statement. "Starting in 2010, we began surveying in critical Arctic areas where marine transportation dynamics are changing rapidly. These areas are increasingly transited by the offshore oil and gas industry, cruise liners, military craft, tugs and barges and fishing vessels," Neander said. The Fairweather and its survey launches are equipped with state-of-the-art acoustic technology to measure ocean depths, collect 3-D imagery of the seafloor and detect underwater hazards that could pose a danger to surface vessels. The ship itself will survey the deeper waters, while the launches work in shallow areas. Recent expeditions to the Arctic are attempting to better understand the processes that are fueling the loss of the region's ice.

Russian youth group sets camp on North Pole, waits for helicopters

Amanda Graham — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 06:04:54 GMT

(RIA Novosti, 22 April 2011) -- A Russian youth group has reached the North Pole after covering more than 100 kilometers on skis, the president of the Polyus Expedition Center, Irina Orlova, said on Friday. The group seven young men and women between 16 and 18 years old, along with their adult guides Matvei Shparo and Boris Smolin, were delivered to 1 degree latitude from the North Pole and skied 111 kilometers (almost 69 miles) for seven days to reach their goal. "They have set up camp on the Pole," Orlova told RIA Novosti. She said that the group should be picked up on Saturday and taken to the Russian Barneo Base by helicopter if weather permits. "If the weather is good, then helicopters will take the youths and the adults to Barneo tomorrow," Orlova said. The seven youths from Russia's Chuvashia, Orlov Region, Omsk, Cheboksar, Perm Region, Vologda Region, and Moscow were chosen among 50 candidates vying for the chance to ski to the North Pole. The expedition was organized by the charitable foundation Priklyuchenie Club (Adventure Club) and the Russian Ministry of Sports and Tourism under the auspices of the Russian Geographic Society, as well as the Association of the North Pole Expedition Center Polyus.

Prince Harry completes North Pole charity trek

Amanda Graham — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:31:31 GMT

(RIA Novosti, 8 April 2011) --Britain's Prince Harry has completed his North Pole charity journey on Friday and arrived on Norway's Spitsbergen from the Russian Arctic Barneo base and was whisked off to Oslo, Polus expedition president Irina Orlova said. Harry, who is a benefactor of the Walking with the Wounded charity, joined a team of four disabled Afghan war veterans last week. The expedition aimed to raise $3.2 million to help wounded troops. The 26-year-old prince was to leave Barneo on Thursday, but cracks in the ice closed down the airport runway, making it unable for planes to take off. The prince hoped to stay longer but must fulfill military commitments, an important stage of his helicopter training and make it back to London in time for Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding where he is to be best man.

Prince Harry's Arctic adventure to commence

Amanda Graham — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:16:18 GMT

(ITN via Yahoo! News, 4 April 2011) -- Prince Harry's intrepid Arctic adventure to raise £2 million for the Walking With The Wounded charity is finally due to commence. The 26-year-old was due to leave the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen on Friday with a group of wounded servicemen aiming to walk to the North Pole. But their departure was put on hold due to dangerous winds around Borneo Ice Airfield. The team was due to land at the spot on Sunday where an airstrip is being built about 200 miles from the North Pole. But plans were postponed since the airfield was not ready due to gales delaying the building of the runway. Winds in Murmansk were blowing in the wrong direction for a heavily loaded supply plane to take off. The third-in-line to the throne has been on the island since Tuesday, training and bonding with the servicemen. The delays mean Prince Harry will only have three nights on the ice, rather than the planned five days, as he will be collected on Thursday and return home to fulfil military commitments - an important stage of his Apache helicopter training.

Russia to Resolute: explorers plan to drive over top of the world to North Pole

Amanda Graham — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 22:19:21 GMT

(Bob Weber/The Canadian Press via AM770, 15 February 2011) -- A group of Canadian and Russian explorers will set out to make history this week by driving from Russia to Canada over the North Pole. Yes, driving. "It's the first time ... someone will be crossing the Arctic Ocean with a wheel-based vehicle," said Mikhail Glan, a Russian emigre living in Vancouver. "It's a very interesting project." The eight-member Polar Ring team, which includes two Canadians, is to leave Thursday from an island in the Russian Arctic and roll straight north until it hits the pole. The team will then gas up and take on supplies at an ice camp used by tourists before heading south to Resolute, Nunavut. "We plan to drive from Russia to the North Pole ... Then we'll drive all the way to Resolute Bay," Glan said from Moscow. "It's pretty simple." Simple, that is, until you consider that the trip is expected to take about four months and cover 7,000 kilometres in one of the most forbidding parts of the planet — nearly half of it sea ice. At the North Pole, the sun won't even rise until March 19. The average temperature is -34°C. And while southern lakes may freeze into easily crossed white tabletops, the Arctic Ocean does anything but. The thick ice shifts and moves with winds and currents, throwing up huge ridges when pans bump together and leaving wide stretches of frigid, open water when they don't. This year is likely to be even tougher than most. There's less ocean covered by ice now than there has been in any winter since satellite records began. "There could be lots of open water," said Glan. "We're not sure that it will freeze. Most probably not, so we need to drive around." But that's OK. The ice buggies can float. "We can cross pretty big pieces of open water, but it definitely will slow us down. We hope that the weather will be more or less friendly." The buggies are an entirely new design, Glan said. Other drive-the-sea-ice expeditions have used vehicles that are heavy and tank-like. A 2009 group drove modified U.S. military Humvees between the Nunavut communities of Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay. Polar Ring's vehicles, powered by nine-litre diesel engines, are relatively light, and look like beefed-up, closed-in dune buggies with gigantic balloon tires. Proving the worth of those vehicles is one of the reasons for the trip. Glan said a successful drive would demonstrate that wheeled transportation could be an efficient way to get around in the High Arctic — useful to everyone from scientists to resource companies to search-and-rescue teams. The Polar Ring members, who will post their progress on the web, will also take myriad scientific measurements and track polar bears.

Are the dumped nuclear reactors leaking?

Amanda Graham — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 03:58:51 GMT

(Barents Observer, 17 February 2011) -- Norway, Russia send joint expedition to the dump sites for submarine reactors in the Kara Sea this summer. Will it be safe to lift the old reactors and bring them safely onshore? A total of 16 naval reactors were dumped east of Novaya Zemlya during the Soviet period. Reactors were dumped because accidents with them caused high levels of radiation. Naval yards in Severodvinsk and along the coast of the Kola Peninsula wouldn’t dare to keep them stored near populated areas, nor less to decommission them in a proper way. The “easy” solution was simply to dump them in remote Arctic waters. Most scaring are the six reactors that were dumped with their highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel still onboard. In the early 90ties, several expeditions with Norwegian and Russian radiation experts onboard sailed to the dump-sites in the Kara Sea. Their findings were just partly without worries. Some samples indicated small leakages in the near vicinity of the reactors, while some reactors were not found. The last joint Norwegian, Russian expedition to the Kara Sea took place in 1994. Since then, only Russian scientists have been given permission to enter the dump-sites areas. This week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) holds a workshop in Oslo with participants from several of the countries involved in nuclear safety operations in northwest-Russia. The objective is to initiate further investigation on sunken submarines and reactors in the Arctic Oceans and strategies to solve the problems. The Norwegian Radiation Protection Agency reports today that the goal is to send a new joint expedition to the sites of dumped reactors and sunken submarines. Such expedition will take place later this year, and is supposed to include Norwegian and Russian team members in addition to experts from IAEA. The big question is: Will it be possible to lift the sunken reactors and bring them safely back to a naval yard without releases of radioactivity? In the ’90s nobody demanded to lift the Kara Sea dumped reactors. Those days, experts and the public were far more concerned about the 120 rusty nuclear powered submarines that were laid-up at the different naval bases and shipyards on the coast of the Kola Peninsula and in Severodvinsk. Today, most of the old laid-up subs are decommissioned and their reactors are safely stored onshore in the Saida Bay, west of Murmansk.

The Greely Expedition (PBS Watch Online)

Amanda Graham — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:50:32 GMT

(PBS via Northern Waterways, 7 February 2011) -- In 1881, 25 men led by American Adolphus Greely set sail from Newfoundland to Lady Franklin Bay in the high Arctic on the east coast of Ellesmere Island, where they intended to collect a wealth of scientific data from a vast area of the world’s surface that had been described as a "sheer blank." Their expedition was an American contribution to the "International Polar Expedition" that later became known as the International Polar Year. Three years later, only six survivors returned, with a daunting story of shipwreck, starvation, mutiny and cannibalism. The film [52:11] reveals how poor planning, personality clashes, questionable decisions and pure bad luck conspired to turn a noble scientific mission into a human tragedy. The web site has many additional high-quality resources for deeper study into the Lady Franklin Bay Greely Expedition.

Governor General's address will make history

Amanda Graham — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 04:22:46 GMT

(Jason Unrau/Whitehorse Star, 4 February 2011) -- Governor General David Johnston plans to speak in the Yukon’s legislature next Wednesday and will make history in the process. While previous governors general have made official visits here, Johnston’s planned remarks before our elected lawmakers will be the first time the Queen’s representative in Canada – the country’s de facto head-of-state – has made such an overture. Johnston’s address is part of a three-day visit to the Yukon with his wife, Sharon. According to a brief press release from Rideau Hall, the governor general’s residence, the couple will meet with local dignitaries and attend Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada events. They will also meet mushers competing in the Yukon Quest sled dog race during an anticipated visit to Dawson City. “My wife and I are looking forward to discovering the rich history, traditions, culture and nature of northern Canada, but most importantly to meet with its people,” Johnston is quoted in the release. The pair will also travel to Old Crow and meet with the Vuntut Gwich'in First Nation’s chief, councillors, elders and community members. “It’s a very unique situation, and has never happened with other governor generals,” Pamela Bangart, chief of protocol with the Yukon government’s Executive Council Office, said today.

Prince Harry to join Army veterans in North Pole trek

Amanda Graham — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 07:13:17 GMT

(Trude Pettersen/BarentsObserver, 14 January 2011) -- Prince Harry of Wales plans to join four wounded British Army veterans when they attempt to trek 320km from Russia to the North Pole in March. The men were all injured on the front line in Afghanistan. The British charity “Walking With The Wounded” aims to get the badly injured servicemen across the polar ice cap, unsupported, BBC reports. The final expedition names have now been announced, together with news that Prince Harry - third in line to the throne and patron of the charity - intends to go with them for part of the way. The team’s Polar Guide will be Norwegian Polar explorer Inge Solheim. The expedition starts from the Russian ice camp of Barneo in late March, the expediton’s web site reads. Before this, the team will spend one week on Svalbard for acclimatization. The team plans to spend 20-25 days on the 320-km-long trek to the North Pole.

Saami experience Nunavut in Cambridge Bay

Amanda Graham — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:50:50 GMT

(Jane George/Nunatsiaq News, 9 November 2010) -- When Jan-Erik Henriksen and Nina Hermansen, Saami from northern Norway, went ice fishing with Anna Kaotalok, Jerry Puglik, Doug Crossley and David Omilgoitok at Kitigak Lake near Cambridge Bay earlier this month, the two Saami found the excursion familiar — but also different from what they’re used to back home. First, the fishing was different because the lake fish were much larger than in Norway, the two Saami said. Secondly, the weather was much colder than they see in northern Norway at this time of year. And you wouldn’t see a herd of muskox wander by back home, either, Henriksen and Hermansen said. But, at the same time, jigging through the ice felt familiar to them, because Saami also survived for thousands of years by fishing — and herding reindeer — in the Arctic regions of northern Europe. Henriksen and Hermansen, who teach at Finnmark University College in Alta, Norway, arrived in Cambridge Bay on Oct. 27 to learn more about Nunavut and Nunavut Arctic College’s programs. Finnmark University College offers bachelor of arts degrees in social work and a masters degree in social work through UArctic, whose north2north exchange program, along with Norway’s Saami parliament, sponsored the two instructors’ trip of one week in Cambridge Bay and another week in Yellowknife. During a visit to one of the community’s schools, where Henriksen gave a presentation about Saami, he was reminded of his own youth in the 1970s when none of his teachers were Saami — a situation that has now changed, he said. Today in Norway, home to about 80,000 Saami, there are Saami teachers, social workers, doctors, nurses, dentists and other professionals.

KSB plans “Nunavik Sivuniksavut” for Inuit youth

Amanda Graham — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:21:07 GMT

(Sarah Rogers/Nunatsiaq News, 2 November 2010) -- Nunavik high school graduates may soon get a made-in-Nunavik option to pursue post-secondary studies. The Kativik School Board is working towards a Nunavik version of the successful Nunavut Sivuniksavut, the college-level program for Inuit students, which is based in Ottawa. Nunavik’s students could benefit from a similar program based on their own region’s history, said Elias Moukannas, an academic advisor at Kativik School Board. “NS is about teaching leadership [to Inuit students], teaching them to express their opinions, to be independent and confident,” Moukannas said. “You have to be able to understand your culture in order to talk about it.” Those skills will help to nurture the future leaders in the region, he added. Nunavik Sivuniksavut, as the program would be called, could open its doors in the fall of 2012. The program will be based in Montreal because students have identified that they benefit from the independence gained in being away from home, Moukannas said. “Everyone’s in support of this,” Moukannas said. “It’s just about finding the funding.”

Nuclear icebreaker disembarks Arctic station crew, returning home

Amanda Graham — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:14:41 GMT

(ITAR-TASS, 24 October 2010) -- MURMANSK - The Rossiya nuclear icebreaker, having disembarked a new drifting station, North Pole-38, in the Arctic, is returning to Murmansk this Sunday, Itar-Tass learnt at the foreign relations section of the Atomflot enterprise of the Rosatom state corporation, which is in charge of the entire Russian nuclear ice-breaking fleet. According to deputy head of this section Vladimir Blinov, part of expedition participants, headed by its chief well-known polar explorer Artur Chilingarov, landed in the port of Pevek, using the icebreaker’s helicopter back on October 18, where from they flew to Moscow. The icebreaker, picking up steam, headed for its base, where the team and the remaining expedition members will be warmly welcomed in Murmansk. If weather does not interfere (another storm and heavy snowfall started in the Arctic on Saturday), the Rossiya will come to the port Sunday afternoon.

Gallery: Russian polar explorers descend on drifting ice floe

Amanda Graham — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:33:10 GMT

(RIA Novosti, Image Gallery, 11 October 2010) -- On Monday, Day 10 of the Arctic expedition, Russian polar explorers started unloading their equipment and supplies on a drifting ice floe they will call home for the next year or so.

Russian expedition blog

Amanda Graham — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:26:51 GMT

(RIA Novosti, October 2010) -- Russia's nuclear-powered icebreaking ship Rossiya set out on an Arctic expedition from the northern port of Murmansk on Saturday, 2 October. A RIA Novosti correspondent is blogging the journey.

Russian icebreaker departs for Arctic

Amanda Graham — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 03:14:51 GMT

(RIA Novosti, 2 October 2010) -- Russia's nuclear-powered icebreaking ship Rossiya set out on an Arctic expedition from the northern port of Murmansk on Saturday. A brass band played a march as the ship started out of the port. The expedition, led by the president's envoy to the Arctic and Antarctic, Artur Chilingarov, will deliver a drifting research station onto an ice floe to carry out a study on the Arctic's water area and climate conditions. RIA Novosti correspondent Alexander Stelliferovsky is taking part in the expedition. Russia and other countries with an Arctic coastline are laying claims to the region's sea floor, said to contain one quarter of the world's mineral resources. The untapped riches are becoming more accessible due to melting ice. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a recent international conference in Moscow that the Arctic would not become a battleground as potential territory disputes could be resolved through negotiation.

Russian expedition aims to claim arctic

Amanda Graham — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 03:01:55 GMT

(UPI, 3 October 2010) -- MURMANSK, Russia - An icebreaker is heading for the North Pole to stake Russia's claim to the arctic, a polar explorer said Sunday. Explorer Artur Chilingarov told RIA-Novosti President Dmitry Medvedev rescued the expedition with essential funding after scientists appealed to him when its fate was in doubt. The nuclear-powered Rossiya set out from Murmansk Saturday on a 25-day journey to the pole. The icebreaker will deliver the SP-38 polar station with 15 explorers to a drifting ice floe for a yearlong stay. The ship's lease costs 2.4 million rubles a day. The expedition is meant to provide "scientific substantiation" for Russia's claim to arctic territories, rich in undersea oil and gas, said Chilingarov. He led a Russian expedition that planted a flag on a contested portion of the arctic seafloor in 2007. "It is not easy to prove that the arctic shelf belongs to Russia," he said. "An attempt was made but only science can prove that it does." The Rossiya is carrying equipment that can "see through" sediment and rock and will be delivered to the polar station "to help substantiate our claims to the Arctic Ocean and the Lomonosov Ridge," Chilingarov said.

Yacht accomplishes Arctic Sea Route

Amanda Graham — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:37:45 GMT

(Voice of Russia, 6 September 2010) -- An 18-metre Russian yacht with a young girl for First Mate has made it all along the Arctic shortcut from Europe to East Asia. The passage measured 12 and half thousand nautical miles, including 3 and a half thousand amid heavy ice. The eight-member crew of the ‘Peter the First’ is into a fourth month of a circumpolar attempt.

Search finds no sign of Arctic shipwrecks

Amanda Graham — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:54:46 GMT

(Randy Boswell/Postmedia News via Nunatsiaq News, 30 August 2010) -- The Canadian government scientists hoping for a second major Arctic shipwreck discovery this summer came up empty after a six-day search for the Terror and Erebus, the lost vessels of the 19th-century Franklin expedition. Parks Canada archeologist Ryan Harris, who earlier this year led the discovery off Northwest Territories’ Banks Island of the HMS Investigator — one of many British ships sent to look for the Terror and Erebus in the 1850s — said Monday a 150-square-kilometre sweep of waters near Nunavut’s O’Reilly Island in the Queen Maud Gulf yielded no sign of the lost Franklin vessels. But Harris and Marc-Andre Bernier, Parks Canada’s director of underwater archeology, said this summer’s search — along with a previous probe in 2008 — has narrowed the hunt for the Franklin ships to an area on the northeast side of O’Reilly Island, located between mainland Nunavut and King William Island. A third season of searching is expected to take place in 2011. “I’m always disappointed if we don’t find something,” Harris said during a conference call with reporters. But asked if he believes the Franklin ships will eventually be found he said: “I’m fairly confident they will be.”

Inuit opponents of Arctic survey offered observer’s spot on German research ship

Amanda Graham — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:07:51 GMT

(Randy Boswell/Postmedia News, 6 August 2010) -- The German government has weighed in on the dispute over a planned seismic survey in Lancaster Sound, insisting the controversial Arctic seabed probe has nothing to do with oil exploration and offering Inuit opponents of the project a special place on the German research ship now poised to conduct the tests for the Canadian government. The conciliatory offer — made to angered Inuit communities through a statement from the German Embassy in Ottawa — came as Baffin Island residents opposed to the sea floor scan battled with federal officials in a Nunavut courtroom in a bid to block the survey. In its statement, the embassy said the geological procedure would be "basic research" conducted in an environmentally friendly" manner, calling it "the latest example of Germany's long-standing and fruitful scientific research collaboration with Canada." The crew of the Polarstern research vessel, owned by the German ministry of education and research, "would welcome the opportunity to inform representatives of the Inuit communities concerned about the work to be carried out and are prepared, if so desired, to take on board an additional observer designated by these communities," the embassy stated.

US, Canada join forces to map Arctic seafloor

Amanda Graham — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:20:43 GMT

Scientists from the United States and Canada have announced plans to embark on a joint expedition to map the Arctic seafloor this summer. The expedition, which was announced via a July 26 press release, is set to begin today (August 2) and will run through September 6. The five-week mission marks the third straight year that the two North American nations have collaborated to study the Arctic seafloor and the continental shelf. According to the press release, one main focus of the expedition is "to help define the outer limits of the continental shelf…. Each coastal nation may exercise sovereign rights over the natural resources of their continental shelf, which includes the seabed and subsoil. These rights include control over minerals, petroleum, and sedentary organisms such as clams, crabs and coral." "The program seeks to help both nations determine how far north they may extend their sovereignty, a potentially lucrative right in an era of melting Arctic sea ice and worldwide demand for the oil, natural gas and other minerals believed to lie beneath the seafloor," noted Reuters reporter Yereth Rosen in a Sunday morning article. "Under the United Nations [UN] Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal nations have sovereignty out to 200 nautical miles from their shorelines, including rights to the minerals and natural resources there…. If the nations can prove there is an extended underwater continental shelf, they may be able to claim sovereignty beyond 200 nautical miles," Rosen added. American scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will set sail on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy. They will depart from an Alaskan port on August 2, and will meet up at sea with their Canadian colleagues on board the Louis S. St-Laurent. "The ships will alternate breaking through the Arctic sea ice for each other," according to the press release. "The Healy will map the shape of the seafloor using a multibeam echo sounder, and the Louis S. St-Laurent will collect multi-channel seismic reflection and refraction data to determine sediment thickness."

Abandoned 1854 ship found in Arctic

Amanda Graham — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:28:29 GMT

(CBC News, 27 July 2010) -- HMS Investigator, abandoned in the Arctic 155 years ago during a search for Sir John Franklin's expedition, has been found. Parks Canada archeologists looking for the ship found it 15 minutes after they started a sonar scan of Bank's Island's Mercy Bay in the Northwest Territories, said Marc-Andre Bernier, chief of Parks Canada's underwater archeology service. "When the team arrived [on July 22], the whole bay was covered in ice," Bernier said. "On July 25, the team had an opening in the ice.… It happened to be where the ship had been abandoned." They started a sonar scan of the area identified by British navy accounts as the spot where the ship had been left. They used a torpedo-shaped scanner, towed behind a Zodiac inflatable boat, which sends out sound waves and produces an image of the floor of the bay. "After 15 minutes, they basically had an image of the wreck," Bernier said. "It's in good condition," he said. "Very good condition, actually — surprising condition." The ship is upright in about 11 metres of water, its bottom buried in sediment if it's still there, and the upper deck under about eight metres of water. While the masts are gone and the bulwarks — the sides of the ship that extend above the deck — are mostly gone, likely damaged by ice, there is potential to find smaller artifacts, Bernier said. "This is very cold water. That helps preservation as well," he said. The Investigator, captained by Robert McClure, was sent in 1850 to search for Franklin's crew and their two ships, the Erebus and Terror.