Better Eating, Better Living in the North: Television chef Rebecca Veevee leads a crusade to bring healthy traditional dishes back to Inuit tables. Inuit TV chef Rebecca Veevee has a dead serious mission: to combat a growing epidemic of diabetes, heart disease and obesity in northern communities by promoting a return to "country food" like seal, caribou and arctic char. But her recipe for getting that message across includes generous doses of humour and a good sprinkling of zaniness. "I like to laugh. I'm a comedian, too," says Veevee, whose lighthearted banter on the show Niqitsiat (meaning healthy eating) is punctuated by gales of laughter. Montreal Gazette

[Canadian] Shipbuilding Strategy May be on the Rocks: Delays, budget cuts and poor negotiation position putting $35 billion initiative at risk. The $35-billion federal ship-building strategy touted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to revitalize the industry in Vancouver and Halifax is in danger of foundering. The delivery of one ship has already been pushed back three years. There are also indications the total number of ships will be reduced. Some experts worry the political fallout could mirror the government's difficulties with the F-35 fighter jet. Vancouver Sun

[Canadian] Inuit to Protest Hunger, Costly Food. A head of cabbage for $20. Fifteen bucks for a small bag of apples. A case of ginger ale: $82. Fed up and frustrated by sky-high food prices and concerned over widespread hunger in their communities, thousands of Inuit have spent weeks posting pictures and price tags from their local grocery stores to a Facebook site called Feed My Family. That site is now the nucleus of an unprecedented protest across Nunavut organized for Saturday to draw attention to food prices that would shock southerners. The Chronicle Herald 

The Beginnings of Arctic Science. After the first attempt to find a northwest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1819 by Lt. William Perry of the British Royal Navy, there followed three quarters of a century of hard lessons. The hard lessons were about survival in the Arctic; on the location and size of islands; on the behavior of sea ice; on the life of the native Inuit; on the tedium of being confined to a ship locked in ice from September until the end of July; and most of all, avoiding the fatal curse of scurvy. During the 100 years after 1818, there were about 200 expeditions to the Canadian Arctic, and 40 percent of them produced results that led to scientific publications. Most of the commanding officers of the Royal Navy during that period were admitted to the Royal Society of London for their contributions to science. Naval officers were trained to observe and record scientific information, use scientific instruments properly, and collect specimens. The Huffington Post 

NOAA Commissions High-Tech Coastal Mapping Ship. On June 8th, NOAA commissioned the Ferdinand R. Hassler, a state-of-the art coastal mapping vessel to detect and monitor changes to the sea floor. Data collected by the ship will be used to update nautical charts, detect potential hazards to navigation, and further enhance our understanding of the ever-changing marine environment. Ferdinand R. Hassler will operate mainly along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, Caribbean Sea, and Great Lakes in support of the NOAA Office of Coast Survey's mission. The vessel will measure water depths along U.S. coasts, acquiring the data necessary to produce navigational charts that help to position America for the next century of maritime economic growth. Hassler will also join the fleet of NOAA vessels that search for underwater dangers to navigation after hurricanes and other emergencies. NOAA 

Research Shows Humans are Primary Cause of Global Ocean Warming. New research by a team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and international collaborators shows that the observed ocean warming over the last 50 years is consistent with climate models only if the models include the impacts of observed increases in greenhouse gas during the 20th century. Though the new research is not the first study to identify a human influence on observed ocean warming, it is the first to provide an in-depth examination of how observational and modeling uncertainties impact the conclusion that humans are primarily responsible. "We have taken a closer look at factors that influence these results," said Peter Gleckler, an LLNL climate scientist and lead author of the new study that appears in the June 10 edition of the journal, Nature Climate Change. "The bottom line is that this study substantially strengthens the conclusion that most of the observed global ocean warming over the past 50 years is attributable to human activities." PhysOrg

Diesel Hits Beaches Near Kodiak as Some 20 Workers Try to Limit Impact. Some 20 cleanup workers were on the scene Sunday, working to limit the impact of a spill of some 15,000 gallons of diesel after the 174-foot Army vessel Monterrey hit a rock, rupturing one of its fuel tanks. The spill threatens the Buskin River area, which, the state says, supports the single-largest subsistence salmon fishery within the Kodiak-Aleutian islands region. Sockeye salmon, halibut and Dolly Varden swim in the waters of Chiniak Bay at this time of year, although Steve Russell, the on-scene coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said commercial fishing in the area isn't open yet and there have been no reports of sport anglers in the area. Alaska Dispatch