The Polar Star stopped in Unalaska last June before undergoing ice trials in the Arctic. /Credit: Audrey Carlsen
The Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star is standing down from a rescue mission in Antarctica after the vessels it was going to assist broke free on their own.
The Polar Star had been called in to clear a path for two ice-bound vessels: a Russian research ship and a Chinese icebreaker.
The Polar Star departed Australia for Antarctica on Saturday and would have arrived on scene Jan. 12.
The Coast Guard says the stranded ships got favorable winds Tuesday and were able to break out of the ice on their own.
Two of the juvenile rockfish used in the study. /Courtesy: Trevor Hamilton and MartÃn Tresguerres
Scientists have been saying for years that more carbon dioxide in the oceans is hurting sea life. But a new study says the impact goes beyond the physical. It says ocean acidification is changing behavior in fish.
As KUCB's Annie Ropeik reports, that could be a problem throughout the ecosystem -- including for fisheries in Alaska.
Recently, Alaska’s Board of Fisheries set up an experimental harvest in the Aleutian Islands that might have benefited small communities like Adak. But Adak had its eyes on a much bigger prize.
In Alaska, fishermen and scientists have a long history of working together to study the best way to catch seafood. And now that federal budgets are on the decline, they’re interested in doing more.
But as KUCB’s Lauren Rosenthal reports, researchers and trade groups around the state are struggling to line up their efforts.
State officials were in Unalaska on Friday to talk about a proposal pre-authorizing the use of chemical dispersants on oil spills in Alaska waters.
Officials from the Alaska Regional Response Team spent four hours at City Hall taking public comment on the proposed changes.
They said the update to the state’s 25-year-old spill response plan wouldn’t guarantee that the controversial dispersants would be used -- it would just make it easier to deploy them in the event of a crude oil spill from a tanker.
The Arctic Hunter is no longer a salvage operation -- Dan Magone of Resolve-Magone Marine Services says the grounded crab boat is officially a wreck. His crews returned to the ship today for the first time in more than a week.
"We found that, as we suspected, the hull damage is much more severe now than after the initial grounding because of that storm that happened about a week ago," Magone says.
Two weeks after the Arctic Hunter ran aground outside Unalaska, state officials are estimating that the boat has released up to 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the water.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation is basing the estimate on reports from the crew of the crab boat.
The crew reported that were carrying five loaded fuel tanks. Salvagers have inspected four of them. Some tanks only contained water, or traces of fuel.
Rough weather is taking a toll on the grounded fishing vessel Arctic Hunter, which has been stuck on the rocks outside Morris Cove since last Friday.
The 93-foot crab boat has survived a series of storms this week without breaking apart. But salvagers haven’t been able to work on the vessel since last weekend.
Dan Magone of Resolve-Magone Marine Services is in charge of recovery efforts.
