Acidic Oceans Mean Thinner, Smaller Shells for Sea Critters: Study. Increased acidity is affecting the size and weight of shells and skeletons of urchins, sea snails and other sea creatures. And the trend is widespread across marine species, says an international study on the likely impact of ocean acidification on shellfish and other marine organisms in the world's oceans. Ocean acidification occurs because some of carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels dissolves in the ocean and reacts with water to produce an acid, called carbonic acid, which causes the oceans to become more acidic. Nunatsiaq News

Russia to Build New Naval Bases in the Arctic. Russia is going to build bases for the Navy and Border Guard Service along the northern sea route which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, says Security Council chief Nikolay Partushev. The location of the bases, in some of the most remote areas of the Arctic Sea, has already been drawn up, Patrushev told the council's meeting in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, on Monday. However, he says the work on getting them up and running is going slowly. "It was suggested we set up a patrol group, organize sorties along the northern sea route and develop a respective legal base, however, a lot of that hasn't been done yet," Patrushev said. RT 

Reindeer Milk, the Next Tourism Industry for Arctic? In 1920, the author Torsten Boberg wrote in a Swedish Tourist Association handbook for mountain travelers that reindeer milk is an acquired taste, but that adding a little of this milk to coffee instead of cream gives it a mild and pleasant flavor. He went on to remark that the sour reindeer milk that the Samis stored buried in the ground was rich, with an obviously high fat content. Now, nearly a hundred years later, one voice in the agricultural community says it's time to have another look at reindeer milk as a possible tourist attraction. Alaska Dispatch

Coast Guard 'Miracle' Keeps Arctic Expedition Afloat: Ice conditions threaten to cancel excursion. An Arctic expedition for students organized by a Gatineau non-profit is on its way out to sea after a "miracle" intervention by the Canadian Coast Guard on Friday. More than 100 students, teachers and guides had planned to board their educational ship in Iqaluit on Aug. 1, but couldn't because the harbor became choked with ice from Frobisher Bay. After days of waiting, the Coast Guard ship Des Groseilliers agreed to help. Students On Ice operations manager Reina Lahtinen said a Coast Guard barge was able to navigate between the ice and bring the students to the Des Groseilliers late Friday. Ottawa Citizen

Alaska Arctic Villages Hit Hard by Climate Change: The impact of climate change-including permafrost melt, more powerful storms and soil erosion-is threatening Alaska Natives. Out late on a Friday night, teenage Inupiat Eskimos go ice-hopping on the Chukchi Sea, one of the rare distractions in Shishmaref, Alaska. The choice for the federal government - and state and local officials - is whether to try to preserve, if it is even possible, the heritage of the Inuit villages, their ice cellars, sod ancestral homes and cemeteries ringed with spires of whale bones. Or spend the hundreds of millions of dollars it would cost to move even one village. Washington Post

Russian Naval Build-up Towers Over Canadian Shipbuilding. Moscow's plans to spend $137 billion by 2020 on beefing up its navy will dwarf Canada's $33 billion shipbuilding program and should be a concern for federal officials, experts say. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the navy will also have an increased presence "in regions like the Arctic" and with Russian bomber patrols still reaching the edge of, and possibly crossing into, Canadian airspace, University of Calgary military analyst Rob Huebert said he sees any Russian naval build-up as a concern, especially because it includes amphibious assault vessels. "That suggests a far more aggressive capability," he said. "That inevitably is going to have challenges for Canada." Toronto Sun 

Coast Guard Tests Arctic Oil Spill Recovery Methods. The Coast Guard and the Navy has been doing an oil spill recovery drill for the last few days north of Barrow. The Coast Guard Cutter Sycamore deployed a skimmer system and tested it. Then it deployed a containment boom system developed for the Navy. And on the third day it ran a test of a special skimmer designed to recover oil floating in pockets in the ice. The "Polar Bear" skimmer was earlier tested on the Great Lakes, but this was the first time the pocket skimmer was tested in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean waters off Alaska. The hope is that a buoy tender can be used for this. The cutter had to be moored to a barge pulled in from Prudhoe Bay. Alaska Public Radio