Sea Ice

by Dan Joling The Associated Press Friday, July 9, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell says an independent economic analysis shows the federal government has dramatically underestimated the potential effect of designating critical habitat for polar bears. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed 187,166 square miles as critical habitat for polar bears. Nearly 95 percent is sea ice in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Parnell says the areas account for almost half of Alaska's oil production.

It's happening again -- walruses are heading on-shore by the thousands at a time when historically they stayed at sea. The scene is playing out this week along Alaska's northwest coast and scientists say it's a very visible reminder of much greater changes. The most recent report shows a herd of about 5,000 walruses on a beach north of Point Lay and a second haul-out of about 3,000 nearby. And like so many other recent disturbances up north scientists say this one too can be attributed to climate change.

The Russian tanker Renda continues to make headway on its journey to deliver more than 1 million gallons of petroleum products to Nome, after the iced-in port missed a fuel delivery in November. After a break overnight Monday, the Renda and its escort, the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy, resumed operations at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning. Vitus Marine LLC, the company that's coordinating the fuel delivery to Nome, says the two ships traveled 53 miles through sea ice Monday, with about 100 miles of ice left to navigate.   Stacey Smith with Vitus Marine says that temperatures are warming up somewhat and are now ranging from 15 degrees below to 20 degrees below, with winds forecast to die down starting Tuesday.

The Iron Dog snowmachine race was interrupted Thursday due to extreme weather in Northwest Alaska. Extreme weather blew in sea ice and took out the race’s usual starting chute. Race officials initially postponed the race for a tentative noon start. After a meeting with racers, officials decided that the safest way to continue with the race was to split the remaining 15 teams into groups to shuttle to Unalakleet, where the route is safer. Three groups of five teams will leave Nome in five-minute intervals for the “yellow-flag” journey to Unalakleet.

"We're a long ways offshore," Craig George says. "The water beneath us is about 180 feet deep. " In late May, a chilly breeze cuts from the west as we stand on a platform of bluish white sea ice. "The Perch," a whale-watching tower located on a snowmachine cul de sac at the top of North America, is a small castle made of ice chunks and an impressive amount of labor. George, fellow biologist Leslie Pierce and I are at the ragged edge of sea ice that clings to the northern coast. Eiders, sea ducks almost as large as geese, bark in the cool air above the open water a few hundred yards ahead of us; the first loons to arrive this far north zip by on their way to summer.

After a disappointing day yesterday, the Russian tanker and its U.S. Coast Guard escort tackle the sea ice again today. The Renda and the Healy still have about 95 miles of sea ice to cross before reaching Nome.  It's been eight days and about 600 nautical miles, since the two ships left Dutch Harbor for Nome on Jan. 3 -- on a mission to deliver more than a million gallons of fuel to Nome, fuel that failed to arrive on a barge last...

The question of whether the ringed and bearded seals will join the polar bear on the federal list of endangered species was debated at a hearing in Anchorage Monday night. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published plans in December to list the ringed and bearded seals as threatened, based on fears that thinning sea ice would hurt their populations. "If these animals have to move over ice fields that are now over very deep water, then it limits their ability to dive and feed off the bottom,"  said Brad Smith, a biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

More than a dozen Alaska Native corporations and other groups, including the North Slope Borough, sued the U.S. Department of the Interior Friday over its designation of more than 187,000 square miles of coastal Alaska sea ice as critical habitat for polar bears. The suit, filed by the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., seeks judicial relief for what the plaintiffs call the department’s violation of the Endangered Species Act. It comes after ASRC sent the Interior Department notice of its intent to sue in January, and joins other filed or planned lawsuits by the State of Alaska and the Center for Biological Diversity.

A new report shows the Arctic is melting faster than expected, and that the oceans could rise significantly by the end of the century. Researchers within the International Arctic Monitoring and Assessment program are predicting the sea level will increase up to 3 feet over the next 90 years, and that in about 40 years the Arctic Ocean could experience a summer with no sea ice at all. "It makes us very concerned because what it suggests is...

A U.S. Coast Guard crew from Kodiak flew their HC-130 Hercules 850 miles north of Barrow yesterday, to check on the crew of a Russian research ice camp and the Russian icebreaker Rossiya. The Rossiya and the ice camp are located 400 miles from the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean. The Coast Guard says the trip was to check on the status of the camp and crew and to make sure they were not in distress because of the ice breaking up. "There ice was definitely more solid this year than last year," Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally said of the flyover.