Red lines indicate the fastest possible routes for light icebreakers, blue lines show the fastest possible routes for open water vessels. Images courtesy of Laurence Smith.
Arctic shipping could be possible for unescorted, open-water vessels by mid-century.
"This research quantifies for the first time the speculations that have been buzzing around for a number of years now," says Laurence Smith, a geographer with the University of California, Los Angeles.
Smith and a fellow geographer modeled Arctic shipping routes using climate change models, and navigation rules. The results show that by 2040, light icebreakers will be able to go pretty much anywhere in the Arctic Ocean during the late-summer melt season, including straight over the North Pole.
Stormy weather delayed the medevac of a crewmember from the F/V Beauty Bay Friday morning.
According to a Coast Guard press release, the vessel was fishing near St. Paul Island when a crewmember injured his hand. The call came in at 6:30am, but the Coast Guard helicopter forward-deployed to St. Paul had to wait until 8:30am to launch because of weather.
When the helicopter did make it to the 116-foot longliner, winds were 50mph, with seas of 20ft.
The 27-year-old crewmember was hoisted from the vessel and airlifted to St. Paul, where he was put on a LifeMed flight to Anchorage.
This is the Coast Guard’s fourth medevac from St. Paul this year.
The tiny Aleutian community of Atka could be in for some major growth over the next few years, if the Atka Pride Seafoods plant expands according to plan.
The plant is co-owned by the Atka Fishermen’s Association and APICDA, a regional community development organization. APICDA Chief Operations Officer John Sevier says processing capacity has doubled in the last year, and he expects it to double again in the next few years.
“Our expansion plans for Atka include about a 60 or 65 person bunkhouse, as well as increased capacity to somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-250,000 pounds of finished-weight product a day,” Sevier says.
Blizzard conditions have sent at least half a dozen vehicles off the road in the last day and half. The latest appears to a tractor-trailer on Captain’s Bay Road. The incident happened just before 5pm Thursday. The truck was tipped on its side in a ditch, but wasn’t impeding the flow of traffic. No one at Public Safety was immediately available to comment on the incident, or on how the truck would be removed. Road conditions are poor, with blowing snow impairing visibility. The city has issued a category II travel advisory, and is asking vehicles to stay off the road unless absolutely necessary.
The storm is expected to continue through tonight, with steady winds of 55 mph, and gusts up to 70 mph.
Once a year, representatives gather at the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference to discuss the region's major economic issues. Affordable energy was front and center at this year’s event, along with the region’s broadband plan, and transportation networks.
In this segment of The Exchange, Unalaska Mayor Shirley Marquardt discusses those issues, and more.
Birthday Cake by Athena Jones/Credit: Enticing Icing Facebook page
Professional cake-decorator Athena Jones discusses the process for making her edible artwork, and shares tips for home-bakers in this segment of The Exchange.
You can see more of Athena's cakes on her webpage, Enticing Icing.
Several dozen people gathered on the beach in Unalaska this afternoon to watch as Shell’s damaged drill rig was towed into port.
Four local tugs actually maneuvered the 277-foot Kulluk into Captain’s Bay, while the ocean-going tugs that towed it from Kodiak stood by. The rig will tie up at its specialized dock in the bay until the ‘heavy-lift’ vessel Xiang Rui Kou arrives to take it to dry dock in Asia.
Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith couldn’t say when the heavy-lift vessel is scheduled to arrive.
After decades of lobbying and planning, a project to overhaul the boat harbor on St. George Island is finally moving forward. The state is accepting bids for the project design, and hopes to have fully developed construction plans by 2015.
St. George mayor Pat Pletnikoff says the sooner the harbor is built, the better.
“Without a functional harbor, in short order, [St. George] will cease to exist.”
It was a busy weekend of basketball in Unalaska, with three teams competing in the Southwest 2A regional tournament.
The Raiders duked it out against Dillingham and Bristol Bay in front of packed crowds for a chance to go to the state championships.
On Thursday, the boys team lost to the Dillingham Wolverines, 52-41, while the Lady Raiders led during their entire game against the Bristol Bay Angels, winning 41-32.
