Arctic Daily Update: March 16, 2012

March 16, 2012

The House and Senate are not in session.

Media

Governor Parnell Makes Nominations to Fishery Council. Governor Sean Parnell nominated Robert "Ed" Dersham and Howard "Dan" Hull for consideration by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce for continued service on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC). The governor also named Timothy Evers and Julianne Curry as alternate nominees. "The fisheries resources in the North Pacific are of vital importance to Alaska, and each of these nominees possesses excellent management and conservation skills," Governor Parnell said. "Mr. Dersham and Mr. Hull have served effectively on the council, and Alaska's interests will continue to be well-served by these nominees." Alaska Business Monthly

Navy Expected to Slightly Reduce Ship Requirement, Admiral Says. The Navy will complete a force-structure assessment within a week that probably will set the service's requirement for ships at 300, a slight downgrade from a force requirement that has been in place since 2006. Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, chief of naval operations, told reporters Friday that the report would be given to the Navy Secretary within a week and to Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta shortly thereafter. Once Panetta gives his approval the report would be sent to Congress, Greenert said. The Navy has about 285 ships. Congressional Quarterly

Living with Change. The World Wildlife Foundation Global Arctic Programme recently released its quarterly magazine. This quarter, WWF covered Managing Arctic Natural Resources in Times of Rapid Change; Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation in Light of Arctic Changes; Assessing Resilience When Change is the Only Given; Resilience-lessons from Reindeer Herding; Changes in Ecosystem Services and their Links to Social-Ecological Resilience; Fostering Robust Arctic Ecosystems; An Innovation Tool for Guiding Arctic Conservation; Marine Case Study; the Beaufort Continental Coast and Shelf; Terrestrial Case Study: Eastern Chukotka; Resilience-thinking and National Park Management in the Canadian Arctic; and, Linking Theory and Practice Through Arctic Council. See here for Living with Change.

Arctic Patrol Ships 'Dumb.' The first ships to roll out of Halifax as part of the national shipbuilding program shouldn't even be built, a Liberal senator says. Colin Kenny, a Trudeau appointee to the Senate, says the government should renegotiate the $25-billion contract with Irving Shipbuilding to include large icebreakers instead of the smaller Arctic patrol vessels now planned as the first part of the contract. "Issues are going to be settled in the Arctic through diplomacy and with lawyers," Kenny said in an interview Thursday. "We're not going to go to war up there. "Sovereignty is best exercised by having the ability to get around, and a Class 10 icebreaker can break up to 10 feet of ice. The Herald

Increase in Arctic Shipping is Risk to Marine Mammals. As Arctic sea ice melts, Alaska's whales, walruses, and polar bears may face a new obstacle as they navigate local waters: traffic. According to an assemblage of Alaska Native groups and WCS, the rapid increase in shipping in these formerly frozen waterways poses a heightened risk to the region's marine mammals and the local communities that rely on them for food security and cultural identity. Science Daily

Coast Guard Considering Permanent Bases in Arctic. The Coast Guard will for the first time dispatch one of its new National Security Cutters to the Arctic as the ice breaks up on Alaska's North Slope this summer. Could permanent bases be far behind? Long-term operations in the frigid climate will require shore-based infrastructure, Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., Commandant of the Coast Guard said in interviews the week he delivered his annual State of the Coast Guard address. "I'm going to identify the needs, and I'm going to talk about them," he told Pentagon media outlets. National Defense Magazine

Legislative Action

No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.

Future Events

Arctic Science Summit Week 2012, April 20-22, 2012. The summit will provide opportunities for international coordination, collaboration, and cooperation in all areas of arctic science. Side meetings organized by stakeholders in arctic science and policy are also expected. More information here.

From Knowledge to Action, April 22-27, 2012. The conference will bring IPYmeetinglogo together over 2,000 arctic and antarctic researchers, policy and decision-makers, and a broad range of interested parties from academia, industry, non-government, education and circumpolar communities including indigenous peoples. The conference is hosted by the Canadian IPY Program Office, in partnership with the National Research Council of Canada, among other groups. Each day of the conference will feature a program of keynote speakers, plenary panel discussions, parallel science sessions, as well as dedicated poster sessions. The conference-wide plenaries will explore themes related to topics of polar change, global linkages, communities and health, ecosystem services, infrastructure, resources and security. Other sessions will provide the opportunity to present and discuss the application of research findings, policy implications and how to take polar knowledge to action. Click here.

USARC Commission Meeting, April 27-28, 2012. The 97th meeting of the CPClogo USARC will be held in Montreal, Canada, in conjunction with the "From Knowledge to

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Action" IPY meeting referred to above. The Commission will meet on April 27-28, and will meet jointly with the Canadian Polar Commission on the afternoon of the 27th, to discuss common interests in Arctic Research. Details to follow.

Arctic Forum 2012, April 30-May 1, 2012. The Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. will host the forum in conjunction with their 24th annual meeting. Both events will be in Washington, D.C. The Arctic Forum is part of the American Geophysical Union's Science Policy Conference, which will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The Conference will focus on the science that helps inform policymakers' decisions. Within the Science Policy Conference, the Arctic Forum will assess gaps and priority needs for arctic scientific information to inform decision makers in policy

formation for three key themes:

- Governance and Security in the Arctic;

- Transportation and Energy Development; and

- Changing Arctic Ecosystems.

The Forum will examine the current state of policymaker and public understanding of the issues. An important goal will be to foster an increased capacity for dialogue and action on arctic science-policy issues.

American Polar Society 75th Anniversary Meeting and Symposium, "The Polar Regions in the 21st Century: Globalization, Climate Change and Geopolitics", May 2-4, 2012, The Explorers Club, NYC. For 75 years, the American Polar Society has both documented and communicated polar activities to the interested world. This meeting will bring together the current leaders in science, government, commerce, and diplomacy for a state-of-the-art forecast of the next seventy-five years in a world influenced more than ever before by the destiny of the Arctic and Antarctic. Click here.

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The Tenth International Conference on Permafrost, June 2012. The conference will be held in Tyumen, Russia, and is organized and hosted by Russia. The last conference was held in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2008. Click here.

15th International Congress on Circumpolar Health, August 5-10, 2012. This event is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Society for Circumpolar Health, and the International Union for Circumpolar Health. The forum will consider community participatory research and healthmeetinglogo indigenous research; women's health, family health, and well-being; food security and nutrition; social determinants of health; environmental and occupational health; infectious and chronic diseases; climate change health impacts; health service delivery and infrastructure; and behavioral health. Click here.

The Arctic Imperative Summit, August 24-28, 2012. The summit will be hosted by Alaska Dispatch and will bring together leading voices in this conversation, including residents from the small villages that comprise Alaska's coastal communities, state, national and international leaders, the heads of shipping and industry, as well as international policymakers and the news media. The goal of the summit is to sharpen the focus on the policy and investment needs of Alaska's Arctic through a series of high level meetings, presentations, investor roundtables and original research. Click here.

Arctic/Inuit/Connections: Learning from the Top of the World , October 24-28, 2012. The 18th Inuit Studies Conference, hosted by the Smithsonian Institution, will be held in Washington, DC. The conference will consider heritage inuitconferencelogo museums and the North; globalization: an Arctic story; power, governance and politics in the North; the '"new" Arctic: social, cultural and climate change; and Inuit education, health, language, and literature. For more information, click here.

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