DOI Proposes New Development, Protections in Arctic. The Department of Interior on Monday proposed a mixture of new oil and gas development and environmental protections in a vast swathe of Arctic land. The department said its preferred alternative for managing the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska calls for about half of the Indiana-sized land unit to be opened to oil and gas leasing. Other areas important to polar bears, seals, migratory birds and other wildlife would be protected from development. The proposed plan was welcomed by environmental activists but drilling supporters said they were unhappy. "What we want to do is make sure that we don't mess it up," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said at an Anchorage news conference. Reuters 

 

Troubled Arctic Challenger Cited for Small Illegal Discharges. The containment vessel designed to capture oil in the event of a spill during exploratory drilling off the coast of Alaska has itself been responsible for four minor illegal fluid discharges during the last three weeks, the Coast Guard confirmed Monday. The discharges all involved hydraulic fluid and were generally limited to about a quart each time, all of which was contained and cleaned up. The fine was just $250. But the discharges signal Shell Exploration's continuing problems with the vessel, the Arctic Challenger, whose trouble-plagued retrofit in Bellingham, Wash., has delayed the launch of the first major offshore oil drilling in the U.S. Arctic in 20 years. Los Angeles Times 

 

 Scientists Expect to Find New Species During First Chukchi Sea Trawl Survey. The first comprehensive survey of the Chukchi Sea ecosystem got underway last week. Scientists will spend the next month collecting samples and cataloging life in the northern waters. The 143-foot Alaska Knight is normally a commercial trawler, but for this month, it's moonlighting as a scientific research vessel - with all of the accompanying baggage. "There's coolers upon coolers upon coolers and buckets upon buckets upon buckets all over this boat at the moment," says Lyle Britt, a federal fisheries biologist. Alaska Public Radio 

 

Obesity Rates Worse in Southern States Than Alaska, New Study Shows. Finally, a list on which Alaska doesn't lead the nation: fatness. An analysis out Monday from Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation gives that distinction to Mississippi, where more than a third of the population -- 34.9 percent to be exact -- are obese. The South, in general, is a national leader in fat people. Alaska is a midpacker. Trust for America, which based its analysis on new figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ranked Alaska No. 28. Only slightly more than a quarter of the people in the 49th state are truly fat. The CDC bases its determination on a body mass index (BMI) of 30. Alaska Dispatch  

 

Helsinki Yard Turns to Special Vessels for Arctic Conditions: Climate change and emerging Russian market brings new orders to Hietalahti shipyard. The Vitus Bering, a hundred-meter-long service vessel with icebreaking capabilities, is moored to the furnishing dock of the Hietalahti shipyard in Helsinki. When the vessel is delivered in December to its buyer, the Russian maritime shipping company Sovcomflot, it will first sail to St. Petersburg and from there to its area of operation - the Sea of Okhotsk, north of the Kuril Islands, to service offshore gas rigs there and to protect them from ice. Helsingin Sanomat