Shell Halts Drilling in Alaska's Chukchi Sea: Offshore drilling stops due to 'potentially encroaching sea ice.' After less than a day of "historic" drilling offshore Alaska's North Slope, Shell decided to stop drilling in the Chukchi Sea due to sea ice. As a precautionary measure, the oil company said Sept. 10 that it would temporarily move off its Burger well to avoid "potentially encroaching sea ice." Once the ice moves on, Shell's drill ship, the Noble Discoverer, planned to re-connect to its eight anchors and continue drilling. NunatsiaqOnline

 

Russian Arctic Expedition Finds New Island. A Russian Arctic expedition has discovered a new island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago. Arctic explorers first hypothesized that the new island could have split away from larger Northbrook Island back in 2006 but bad weather prevented a previous expedition from finding proof. The Arctic-2012 expedition, which set off from Murmansk on Saturday on board the Rossiya nuclear icebreaker, took photographs of the new strait that has formed between the two islands and fixed the coordinates of the coastline. RIA Novosti 

 

Iceland's President Weighs in on Impact of Rapidly Disappearing Arctic Ice. Iceland is in a unique position as far as the changing global environment. The northern country not only sees the melting ice, but also has a front-row seat for the effort to convert to a clean-energy economy. Iceland uses clean energy for virtually all of its electricity and heating. Environmental activists aren't the only ones to see threats from fossil fuels in the Arctic; world leaders see threats too. But they also see opportunities. A warming climate means that sea ice in the far north is melting faster than ever expected. That was one of the topics under discussion the recent Arctic Imperative summit in Alaska, where Iceland's President Olafur Grimsson delivered the keynote address. Public Radio International 

 

Study Maps Pollution's Pathway to the Arctic, Sets Path for Future Research: MIT Researchers have built a model that will be further developed as part of an NSP-funded project to track how chemicals get to remote Arctic environments. It's been more than a decade since global leaders met in Stockholm, Sweden, to sign a treaty with the goal of eliminating persistent organic pollutants making their way into our food chain - such as harmful pesticides like DDT that nearly wiped out the American Bald Eagle. While leaders have come a long way in restricting these types of pollutants, contamination of the Arctic remains a problem. Researchers at MIT are working to help inform policies that more effectively address contamination problems with their latest research and the help of a new grant from the National Science Foundation. MIT News 

 

Arctic Sea Ice Vanishes - and the oil rigs move in: As Arctic sea ice melts to its lowest level on record, oil companies move in to begin drilling the far north. The state of the Arctic, which is bad, may have just made the dreaded jump to worse. This summer, the sea ice that caps the Arctic Ocean melted to the lowest level since at least 1979, when satellites first began keeping track of ice over the North Pole. By the end of August, the National Snow Ice and Data Center (NSIDC) reported that Arctic ice had fallen to 1.54 million sq. miles (4 million sq. km). That's nearly six times the size of Texas, but it's still 45% less than the average for August throughout the 1980s and 90s - and as of now the ice is still shrinking. Nor is 2012 an anomaly - the ice cap has been shrinking over the years as temperatures have increased, and now some scientists believe the total volume of Arctic ice is only a quarter of what it was 30 years ago. "By itself it's just a number, and occasionally records are going to get set," NSIDC scientist Walt Meier said at the end of August in a statement. "But in the context of what's happened in the last several years and throughout the satellite record, it's an indication that the Arctic sea ice cover is fundamentally changing." Time 

 

Whale Surveys Spot Killer Whales in Alaska Arctic. Scientists counting marine mammals off Alaska's Arctic Ocean coast spotted two large groups of killer whales last month, but orca experts are not ready to say the species has increased its numbers in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. An aerial survey crew Aug. 20 spotted 13 killer whales 6.2 miles northeast of Barrow, America's northernmost community. The flight was part of a bowhead whale survey sponsored by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and other federal agencies. Five days later, crew members aboard the Westward Wind, a vessel in the Chukchi Sea Environmental Studies Program, which is conducting research on behalf of oil companies, spotted 25 to 30 orcas near Hanna Shoal, a shallow-water area northwest of Barrow. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 

 

Where do Alaska Lawmakers Stand on Law of the Sea Treaty? Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has been for years trying to muster up the Republican side of the 67 senate votes required for ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty. The treaty deals with international waterways, marine boundaries, and access to sub-sea resources in the Arctic Ocean. Democrats are by and large supportive. The problem since the 1980s has been with the GOP. Most recently, Republican senators, emboldened by tea party favorite Sen. Jim DeMint, blocked ratification of the treaty in July, citing sovereignty concerns. And in August, tea party factions in the party managed to insert the following language about the treaty in the national platform: Because of our concern for American sovereignty, domestic management of our fisheries, and our countries long-term energy needs, we have deep reservations about the regulatory, legal, and tax regimes inherent in the Law of the Sea Treaty and congratulate Senate Republicans for blocking its ratification. Alaska Dispatch 

 

Eye Under the Ice: Ocean Networks Canada facility will collect data on sea ice, produce images of underwater marine life. Data on when sea ice melts and freezes as well as images of underwater marine life will be available to Cambridge Bay residents an Arctic mini-observatory is installed later this month. Ocean Networks Canada recently obtained a five-year research licence from the Nunavut Research Institute to install a cabled seafloor observatory and surface weather station off the community's coast. The non-for-profit organization, responsible for managing the observatory on behalf of the University of Victoria, will likely install the instrument platform six to 10 metres underwater and linked by cable to the wharf this month. Northern News Service 

 

Canada Looks North. [Opinion]  Canada's failure to gain a seat on the UN Security Council two years ago was seen as a blow to this country's influence on the international stage. How serious a blow is a matter of interpretation. But there are many ways in which countries can exert international influence and in a few months Canada will be handed the reins to an organization that includes two of the world's superpowers and is rapidly gaining importance and relevance. When Canada takes the lead of the Arctic Council for two years, beginning in 2013, it will have the opportunity to set the agenda and tone for international relations around what is quickly becoming one of the most strategically crucial parts of the world, the Arctic. Ottawa Citizen