The Week at a Glance: March 19-23. The Senate will consider small business and import-export legislation. The House will consider two bills under suspension of the rules: immigration provision and malpractice legislation. Congressional Legislation

Loose Lips Shouldn't Sink These [Canadian] Ships. Loose lips sink ships. In wartime Halifax, staging port for North Atlantic convoys, people took this slogan seriously. With good reason. Stopping convoys was the German navy's primary mission. There was a real risk unguarded talk in port could provide targeting information to enemy submarines.

Happily, the navy and Halifax have less cause to worry about loose lips today. At least not about the pair attached to Liberal Senator Colin Kenny. They're loose, but probably not dangerous. Kenny, former chairman of the Senate defense committee and a longtime critic of the decision to build Arctic patrol vessels, has created a stir by calling on Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to axe the ships in his March 29 budget. Winnipeg Free Press 

From New Offices to New Oil, Alaska Sees New of Life After The Big 3. Apache Corp., an independent oil company engrossed in an ambitious seismic exploration program to hunt for oil in Cook Inlet, has opened up digs in Anchorage. Apache's move is another sign that smallish and independent oil companies may be the wave of the future in Alaska, thanks in part to the state's tax credits designed to spark exploration -- something Alaska's big oil companies aren't doing much of these days. With several oil and gas companies staking new claims in Alaska in recent years, does that mean the 49th state is transitioning to an era less dominated by the so-called "Big Three," Exxon Mobil Corp., BP and ConocoPhillips? Alaska Dispatch 

Arctic Tree Line Not Moving as Fast as Thought, Despite Climate Change. A study released this month by Cambridge University indicates the advance of the treeline in the Arctic is moving slower than previously predicted. The study, which was released March 17 by Gareth Rees, a researcher with the university's Scott Polar Research Institute, says the relationship between climate change and tree growth is more complicated than initially thought. "To generalize our results, the tree line is definitely moving north on average but we do not see any evidence for rates as big as 2 kilometers per year anywhere along the Arctic rim," he said in a news release. "Where we have the most detailed information, our results suggest that a rate of around 100 meters per year is more realistic. In some places, the tree line is actually moving south. The predictions of a loss of 40 percent of the tundra by the end of the century is probably far too alarming." Alaska Dispatch 

Coast Guard Prepares for Arctic Drilling Protests. The Coast Guard chief of staff in Alaska says the agency is preparing for possible protests of petroleum drilling in Arctic waters at a port where support vessels may be staged. Capt. Buddy Custard told a legislative committee Friday in Juneau that the Coast Guard in June will deploy small boats in Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands as a law enforcement presence. Custard says protests in New Zealand that targeted a Shell Oil drilling ship leads the Coast Guard to believe that Dutch Harbor may also see protests. Anchorage Daily News 

Melting Arctic Ice Could Poison Ecosystems, Experts Say. Arctic sea ice that's been melting at a dramatic rate in the last few decades is releasing a chemical soup that could poison the food chain with mercury and other dangerous chemicals, a new study suggests. The NASA-led research that involved five members from the University of Manitoba will appear in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Geophysical Research. The team found that when the salt in sea ice, frigid temperatures and sunlight interact a chemical reaction releases bromine atoms into the atmosphere, which then mix with a gaseous form of mercury creating a pollutant that falls back to Earth. CTV News 

Researcher Risks Life and Limb So Polar Bears Can Endure. The learning curve to conduct polar bear research in the Arctic proved both steep and painful for Andrew Derocher. He was a young graduate student at the University of Alberta, working in the Beaufort Sea with a Northwest Territories wildlife officer. His task in the spring of 1986 was to catch and tag polar bears, including cubs that were travelling with their mothers. "I had never seen spring cubs before," Derocher recalls. "I had been instructed on how much drug to give them with the tiny syringe I had prepared. What I wasn't instructed on was how fast these cubs can move." Edmonton Journal 

Canada-Denmark Wrap Up Greenland Military Exercise: Canadian rangers helped Danish elite forces learn Arctic skills. Canadian Rangers from Nunavut headed back home March 16 after a two-week military exercise in northeastern Greenland, called "Arctic Training 2012," where they helped train members of Denmark's special forces and its Sirius dog team patrol unit. During the exercise, the Danes gained experience about snowmobiling, "where the Canadian Rangers have extensive experience," according to a Danish news release on the exercise- which was not publicized in Canada. Exercise participants also took a trip on the land, where they set up a camp to test polar bear alarms and other survival skills. Nunatsiaq Online 

Speed Limits on Arctic Shipping Urged to Protect Marine Mammals: "The disappearance of summer sea ice from the region's coastal areas is leading to major changes." Environmentalists and Arctic aboriginal groups are urging speed limits on ships and other rules to protect marine mammals as the Northwest Passage and other polar transportation routes become more heavily travelled in an era of retreating sea ice. The U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society and native organizations, including the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), issued a call on Friday for northern countries to acknowledge the rising risks to northern marine creatures resulting from the "rapid increase in shipping in the formerly ice-choked waterways of the Arctic." Of particular concern, the groups stated after a three-day workshop on the issue, is the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska, an ecologically rich but relatively narrow choke point for ships travelling through both the Northern Sea Route north of Russia and the Northwest Passage through Canada's Arctic islands. Nunatsiaq Online 

[Alaska] House Agrees Standards for Shipping, Oil Pollution Preparedness Needed. The House today agreed with the Senate's request that the Arctic Council Task Force consider Alaska's interests in establishing standards for shipping and oil pollution preparedness for Arctic waters. Bethel Democrat Bob Herron, in presenting the resolution that had already passed the Senate, said the state is looking for requirements that all vessels in the Aleutians and the Bering Straits have adequate oil spill contingency plans, and that they voluntarily comply with the state's oil spill and response rules. "As you know, there have been recent events that have impacted the Aleutian Islands. Cooperation will be the key in successful prevention-response efforts. We don't have jurisdiction over international waters. But this is one way that Alaska will be able to protect our shores by participating in this important dialog." Alaska Public Radio 

Legislature Working to Develop Arctic Policy Commission. The state legislature is making progress toward establishing an Arctic policy commission. At a hearing of the House Finance Committee on Wednesday, Rep. Reggie Joule explained that even though Alaska is the country's only Arctic state, it's often left out of conversations about federal policy concerning the region. He thinks that having a body responsible for developing an Arctic strategy would give the state more credibility with regulators in Washington. "When we went and addressed the State Department, the Department of the Interior, it is amazing what people do not know about our state that should be basic," said Joule. "And they get to make budget decisions. And I think it's imperative that the legislature stay involved in this process." Alaska Public Radio 

Canadians Donate $10,000 to Save Arctic Research Station: PEARL forced to stop year-round monitoring of greenhouse gases, pollution. Canadians have donated about $10,000 to help keep a unique High Arctic research station from closing after its federal funding stops, says the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences. The Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, or PEARL, is the northern-most civilian research station in Canada. The laboratory takes measurements on greenhouse gases and ozone and verifies the accuracy of satellite data, among other things. It contributes data to several international projects monitoring climate change. "Donations range from $5 up to over $1,000 and they come from coast to coast, from students, from people from all walks of life who are responding to the fact that this unique research station will not continue," said Dawn Conway, executive director of the foundation. CBC News 

Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Supports AVCP Salmon Initiatives. The ICC is an international Indigenous Peoples' Organization representing about 160-thousand Inuit living in the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka, Russia. The Association of Village Council Presidents, AVCP, has been a member since its creation over 30-years ago. The Alaska ICC President was at the Historic State of the Salmon convention. Sophie Evan talked with him about his perspective. KYUK 

The World's Glaciers, Inventoried. Since 1999, NOAA@NSIDC has worked with the World Glacier Monitoring Service to make its World Glacier Inventory (WGI) available online. While the WGI cannot truly claim to have all the world's glaciers, it now has over 130,000.  The NOAA@NSIDC team worked with an intern from the WGMS to update the documentation and add almost 26,000 records. The WGI is a reference data resource for the world's glaciologists. National Snow and Ice Data Center