Shell has paused its drilling operation in the Arctic just a day after starting. The Noble Discoverer drill rig cut into the Chukchi Sea floor Sunday morning but had to disconnect from the well site Sunday evening to get out of the way of a massive island of sea ice bearing down on the area.

“It’s about 30 miles long. It’s about 12 miles wide,” Shell spokesperson Curtis Smith says. “It’s moving about 0.3-0.5 knots. It varies in thickness of course, but in its thickest area it’s about 25 meters (82 feet) thick, so that’s pretty substantial.”

A local man was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.

Albert Fredericks, 46, was charged with sexual assault in the second degree on Saturday, after a woman reported that he attacked her in her own home Thursday morning. Fredericks maintains the act was consensual. According to court documents, a medical examination found injuries consistent with the woman’s statement.

(Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)

Magone Marine finally pulled its landing craft off the bottom on Sunday night. The vessel Joshua sank last week while it was moored to a Magone barge in Dutch Harbor.

Magone Marine manager Kenneth Willis says the Joshua’s through-hull pipe, which pumps shower and washbasin water out into the ocean, had ruptured. That caused the sinking. Willis says a diesel spill that started when the vessel sank has been completely contained.

After months of delays and mishaps, Shell Oil has started its controversial drilling program in the Arctic. The Noble Discoverer drill rig cut into the Chukchi Sea floor Sunday morning.

“It’s the first time a drill bit has touched the seafloor in the U.S. Chukchi Sea in over twenty years," says Shell spokesperson Curtis Smitih. "Of course, it also marks the culmination of our six year effort to begin drilling for potentially significant oil and gas reserves in the Alaska offshore.”

(J. Stephen Conn/Flickr)

For the past few months, the Grand Aleutian Hotel has been operating nearly at capacity.

Oilmen, researchers, and even a billionaire media mogul have booked rooms there this summer. And next week, a wave of political and Native leaders from across the region will be taking over the hotel as part of the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association’s Wellness and Governance Conference.

After months of delays and mishaps, Shell could start drilling in the Arctic over the weekend. The company had hoped to begin earlier this week, but stormy weather in the Chukchi Sea has delayed preparations.

“We’ve seen some really heavy winds and high sea states in the area," says Shell spokeperson Curtis Smith. "We’ve performed operations, but not all of them. That’s moved us into this weekend. If we continue with the progress we’ve been making, we can be moored up to all of our anchors within 24 hours and then drilling can start.”

Unemployment in the Aleutians West Census Area went down in the month of July, according to the Alaska Department of Labor.

The jobless rate dropped from 8.5 percent to 7.3 percent. At the same time last year, unemployment was at 5.7 percent. Still, the Aleutians outperform the state rate, which jumped up to 7.7 percent in July.

The Aleutians West Census area has one of the most variable unemployment rates in the nation, bouncing regularly because of its small population, its large transient workforce, and the seasonal nature of the fishing industry.

Credit: Mikeetnier/National Marine Mammal Laboratory

An independent panel tasked with evaluating the scientific merits of a federal assessment of the endangered Western population of Steller sea lion has released its finding. The general consensus: the government’s science doesn’t pass muster.

The Center for Independent Experts is an official body of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  The panel was convened to peer review the controversial assessment, which attributed the decline of Steller sea lions in the western Aleutians to resource competition with fisheries. In 2011, the National Marine Fisheries Service shut down the Atka mackerel and Pacific cod fisheries in the region based on that analysis. In response, the state of Alaska and industry groups sued NMFS, alleging the government’s findings were little more than conjecture. The independent panel’s review seems to support that assessment.