Image

Ahead of the pack

Twelve hours out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, the scientists and crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter, Healy, encountered the first patches of sea ice on their 40-day expedition. The research team aboard the vessel is studying the impacts of climate change on the Arctic ecosystem, and includes bird surveyors, who spend the days high up on the ship’s bridge looking for birds and marine mammals. The expedition is chronicled on Polar Discovery, a WHOI Web site sponsored by NSF to document several Arctic and Antarctic research voyages.
(Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)