US Offshore Arctic: Ice-bound, little known, and highly controversial. The prospect of oil drilling in the as-yet barely touched Arctic, with its unique ecosystem and wildlife, has outraged environmentalists. The fact that exploration has been facilitated by the shrinking Arctic ice, thought to be a consequence of global warming caused by burning fossil fuels, is an irony that has made the protests even fiercer. Financial Times 

Traveling to Rural Alaska Requires Interest and a Little Bit of Work. Alaskans travel for many reasons. Some are serial adventurers: scaling a peak here, kayaking a cove there. Others are going to work: fishermen, teachers or oil patch workers. Whatever takes you to the remote stretches of Alaska, it's hard not to pause at the grandeur of the country. That was the case when I tagged along on a rapid-fire economic development fly-through of Alaska's northwestern Arctic region. Alaska Dispatch

From Huge Whales to Tiny Plankton, Species migrate across newly ice-free Northwest Passage. When a 43-foot (13-meter) gray whale was spotted off the Israeli town of Herzliya last year, scientists came to a startling conclusion: it must have wandered across the normally icebound route above Canada, where warm weather had briefly opened a clear channel three years earlier. On a microscopic level, scientists also have found plankton in the North Atlantic where it had not existe d for at least 800,000 years. Chicago Tribune 

NASA Returns to Arctic to Study Climate Change. This week, NASA will embark on the final leg of its mission to study how changing environmental conditions affect the Arctic's chemistry and ecosystems. On June 25, the ICESCAPE mission, or "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment," sends 47 scientists to the Chukchi and Beaufort seas along Alaska's western and northern coasts aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy. Phytoplankton, microscopic organisms that form the base of the aquatic food web, are a key focus of the campaign. Alaska Dispatch 

Oil Spill Prevention Technology Center Planned for UAF: ARCTIC RESEARCH: School in unique spot to coordinate learning. The University of Alaska Fairbanks is planning the formation of a science and technology center for oil spill prevention and preparedness in the Arctic, Mark Myers, vice chancellor for research at UAF, told Petroleum News June 15. While the various challenges associated with oil spill risks present the biggest single hurdle to moving forward with oil and gas development in the Arctic offshore, UAF is in a unique position to research, develop and coordinate a wide range of state-of-the-art technologies for addressing the particular challenges that the Arctic presents, Myers said. Anchorage Daily News  

No Arctic Fishery Until More is Known, Canadians Say. A survey suggests that most Canadians back a ban on commercial fishing in the Arctic where experts warn melting sea ice and warming water could draw fishing fleets to the North within the next few years. "There will, in the not too distant future, be the opportunity for someone in a fishing boat to go in there," said Trevor Taylor of the environmental group Oceans North. Some 54 per cent of those asked said the government should work to prevent all countries from fishing in international Arctic waters until research has determined the extent of stocks and regulations are in place to control how they're exploited. That's more than twice as many as the 23 per cent who believed Canadian fishers should be encouraged to head into the Arctic if other countries go there first. The telephone survey of 1,205 Canadians was taken in late May by Nanos Research. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. CTV News 

Drilling in Arctic Waters? Scientists aren't sure if it is safe. Escalating oil prices and diminishing supplies around the world are focusing more attention than ever on the vast petroleum reserves under the Arctic seabed, and in the relatively pristine shoreline areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The Obama administration is moving to speed up drilling where possible, but the nagging problem with a wholesale move into the Arctic is how much we don't know about the remote, fragile region. How much more drilling can safely be accommodated? LA Times

Are There Any Eskimo Curlews Left Out There? Is the Eskimo curlew extinct? The last winter sighting was in 1987 in Nebraska, the last summer sighting in 1983 in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reports Reuters via the Mother Nature Network. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is this summer asking its Alaska scientists for help in determining whether the shorebird should be declared extinct. Anchorage Daily News

USGS Report: More Native dialogue needed to address science gaps, including subsistence impacts. The need for more traditional knowledge in Arctic science receives plenty of attention in a new report that highlights gaps in data related to proposed oil and gas drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf in Alaska. "There is a need for additional science dialogue with Native communities to more comprehensively incorporate local traditional knowledge into decisions," reads a fact sheet released with the U.S. Geological Survey report.  The 278-page report itself spends a great deal of time calling for more comprehensive and collaborative studies that address potential changes in a broad way. The Arctic Sounder