Ever-changing sea ice provides show for scientific observers

ANN FIENUP-RIORDAN

April 18, 2008 at 12:18PM AKST

For The Tundra Drums

It’s been a busy weekend on board the Healy, research vessel of the U.S. Coast Guard and National Science Foundation.

Crews have gone out on the ice once a day for the last four days, in weather ranging from minus 2 to 20 degrees.

For me the most exciting time is when the ship is moving. Three days ago, when we left open water and entered the pack ice, I had assumed we would see nothing but white for the rest of the trip. Instead the ship has been constantly moving in and out of open water.

Not only that, but the character of the ice is always changing. Spring is on its way, and sunlight is melting the pack ice fast. One good storm could break it apart.

But when the weather gets cold at night, as it did two days ago, we woke up to acres of new ice covering what had been open water. Ice observers call these dark nilas.

Tiny "ice flowers" – salty brine pulled through the freezing surface ice – can be seen speckling the ice and dotting its surface.

Every hour or so ice observations are taken, noting temperature, depth, ice cover and character, snow cover, sediment in the ice, algae and other biology. No two observations are the same. The world around us is always changing.

Ann Fienup-Riordan is an anthropologist with the Calista Elders’ Council traveling on board the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy while conducting research in the Bering Sea. To learn more about the scientific mission of the journey, visit bsierp.nprb.org.