Unalaska, AK – The Coast Guard icebreaker Healy is in Dutch Harbor tonight after the second leg of its winter cruise in the Bering Sea.

Unlike other Coast Guard ships, the Healy mostly works as a research platform for scientists. This time around, the vessel hosted researchers working as part of two programs, the Bering Ecosystem Study and the Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Program, which are funded by the National Science Foundation and the North Pacific Research Board, respectively. The Healy spent 39 days traversing the Bering Sea south of St. Lawrence Island and north of the Pribilofs while researchers looked at how the climate change-driven retreat of sea ice could be affecting the greater Bering Sea ecosystem.

"This is especially important now, because sea ice around the Arctic has been declining--both in its extent and how long it's around," said Carin Ashjian, an associate scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the chief scientist on the trip. Ashjian said that while sea ice extended much further south this winter than in recent years, "We're starting to see signs that the ecosystem from the southern Bering Sea is moving into the northern parts."

Ashjian said the scientists spent a lot of time examining the algae that forms on the underside of the sea ice, work that yielded some interesting insights.

"We think now that ice algae does appear to be quite important to the animal life that lives in the ocean--that some of them may swim up to feed on the algae," she said. "This has been seen in Antarctica, and we believe it happens in the Arctic regions as well."

The researchers will be presenting a slide show of pictures from their trip in the Shishaldin Room of the Grand Aleutian Hotel at 8 p.m. this evening.