Gazprom Launches Giant Arctic Gas Field. Russian energy giant Gazprom officially launched production on Tuesday at its giant Bovanenkovo gas field on the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic. The field, with estimated reserves of 4.9 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, was launched by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, while Russian President Vladimir Putin attended via a video link-up. The Bovanenkovo field is expected to produce 46 billion cubic meters of natural gas next year and build annual output to 115 billion cubic meters by 2017, and eventually to 140 billion cubic meters. RIA Novosti 

Biologists Record Increasing Amounts of Plastic Litter in Arctic Deep Sea. The sea bed in the Arctic deep sea is increasingly strewn with litter and plastic waste, according to researchers. The study is published in the advance online publication of the scientific journal Marine Pollution Bulletin by Dr. Melanie Bergmann, biologist and deep-sea expert at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association. The quantities of waste observed at the AWI deep-sea observatory HAUSGARTEN are even higher than those found in a deep-sea canyon near the Portuguese capital Lisbon. Science Daily

Arctic Allure Fades for Oil Companies. The agreement between BP and Russian oil giant Rosneft announced on Monday is said to give the British group a firm foothold in the Arctic, a region often hailed as a new frontier for oil and gas companies. But the allure has faded with the rise of cheaper energy sources such as shale gas. BP plans to sell its share in the Russian joint venture TNK-BP to Rosneft in return for $17.1 billion and an additional 12.84 percent stake in Rosneft, a state-owned firm. Analysts said the deal would allow the British oil major to revive its stalled efforts in the Arctic, after a tie-up with Rosneft last year was blocked by BP's Russian partners in TNK-BP. AFP

NOAA Announces $4.9 Million for Collaborative Research Projects to Help Coastal Communities Manage Effects of Climate Change. NOAA and the University of New Hampshire have announced more than $4.9 million to fund nine collaborative research projects aimed at making coastal communities and environments more resilient to rising sea levels, changing weather patterns, extreme storms, and ocean warming and acidification. The grants, made by NOAA's National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) Science Collaborative through its partnership with the university, will fund projects in South Carolina, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Alabama, Oregon and California. NOAA

Damanaki Hails Blue Vision for Baltic and Arctic. A new integrated maritime policy for the Arctic, the Atlantic and the Barents Sea, described as a "blue vision" for growth and sustainable fishing, has been laid down by the European Union. EU Ministers together with Maria Damanaki, the EU Fisheries Commissioner, signed the "Limassol Declaration" that embraces our "blue" vision for growth and sustainable solutions for future prosperity. Ms Damanaki said: "Five years ago, the integration of Maritime Policy was just a promising idea; now we have already laid down objectives for the Arctic, the Atlantic and the Baltic and set up a process to achieve them by working all together. FISH Update  

Officials Wonder Where All Alaska's King Salmon Have Gone? The season is long over for Alaska's king salmon fishermen, but the debate over what went wrong this summer still percolates. Hundreds of Alaska scientists, Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials, fishermen and others descended on downtown Anchorage Monday for the Alaska Chinook Salmon Symposium to discuss where research needs improvement. "We need a comprehensive look at everything we know and everything we don't," said Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell. "This is just one step into the process to create a robust research plan." Alaska Dispatch

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 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.