Study: Arctic Ice Will Melt in 10 Years Oct 16, 2009
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that the explorers walked - and swam - 280 miles across the Arctic ice of the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, drilling hundreds of ice samples as they went. The Catlin Arctic Survey team, led by explorer Pen Hadow, measured the thickness of the ice as it sledged through the northern part of the Beaufort Sea earlier this year during their research project. (CBS News)
Survey Data Supports Rapid Ice Loss: Largely Open Arctic Seas In Summer Within 10 Years Oct 16, 2009
The data (1), collected by manual drilling and observations on a 450-kilometre route across the northern part of the Beaufort Sea (2), suggests the survey area is comprised almost exclusively of first-year ice. This is a significant finding because the region has traditionally contained older, thicker multi-year ice. (Science Daily)
Arctic ice to vanish in summer, report says Oct 16, 2009
Survey captured latest data on ice thickness in Northern part of Beaufort Sea ... He and his team collected data by manually drilling into the ice and noting its thickness along a 450-kilometer route across the northern part of the Beaufort Sea. (CNN)
VIDEO: Arctic Ice Mostly Gone in Ten Years? Oct 16, 2009
The Catlin Arctic Survey team, led by explorer Pen Hadow, measured the thickness of the ice as they sledged and hiked through the northern part of the Beaufort Sea in the geographic north Pole. Their findings show that most of the ice in the region is first-year ice that is only around six feet deep and will melt next summer. (National Geographic)
Arctic ice cap to disappear in summer in years: study Oct 15, 2009
The Catlin Arctic Survey team, led by explorer Pen Hadow, trekked through the northern part of the Beaufort Sea in the North Pole for 73 days earlier this year. Across their 450-km route, the team found that most of the ice in the region is first-year ice that is only around 1. (Xinhuanet, China)
Vanishing Arctic ice shows no sign of returning Oct 3, 2009
ON BOARD COAST GUARD FLIGHT ABOVE BEAUFORT SEA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Out in the Arctic Ocean, about 200 miles (322 km ) north of the nearest human settlement, the future of the world's climate is written in the patterns of ice patches on the 's surface ... In the Beaufort Sea, winter is already encroaching just days after the autumnal equinox. (Scientific American)
Whalers land four bowheads on first day of fall hunt in Barrow Sep 30, 2009
Currently, whalers have been heading north of Point Barrow, to the Beaufort Sea, Brower said. That's where whales are moving west, migrating back to their winter grounds to the south. (Juneau Empire)
Alaska Coast Eroding Fast Sep 26, 2009
Although the Beaufort Sea coastline has been receding for millennia, a is a concern, scientists say. A research team rigged a camera on top of a pipe wedged into the seafloor about 15 or 20 feet (4. (National Geographic)
Polar bear hunters see culture melt away Sep 22, 2009
The Inuvialuit sense something's gone wrong with their subpopulation, the Southern Beaufort Sea bear. "They've been less abundant the past 10 years," said Tuktoyaktuk hunter Elvis Raddi, 49. (MSNBC -- Environment)
White bear takes center stage in climate drama Sep 21, 2009
The Inuvialuit sense something's gone wrong with their subpopulation, the Southern Beaufort Sea bear ... But Pokiak is prepared for bad news later this year from research in Alaska, which shares the Beaufort Sea bear population with the Canadians. (Sioux City Journal)
In remote Canada, villagers man climate’s front line Sep 20, 2009
The hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk grew up in the 20th century on a spit of gravelly land hooking out into the Arctic s Beaufort Sea, at latitude 69 degrees north, 1,500 miles from the US border. Much of the land is ice, great wedges of it stuck in the frozen soil of the permafrost. (Boston Globe)
Arctic sea ice levels third-lowest on record Sep 19, 2009
The typical combination of a high-pressure system over the Beaufort Sea and low pressure over eastern Siberia, which carries a lot of warm air across the Siberian Sea and pushes the ice edge towards the pole, broke down in August, preserving the remaining ice pack. But there is no indication that 2009 marks the beginning of a trend reversal, scientists. (Scientific American)
Sea ice melt 3rd largest in 30 years Sep 18, 2009
The reason the ice cap did not shrink as much this year as it did in the previous two years is that summer temperatures were relatively cooler, especially in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, according to the center, based in Boulder, Colo ... Mead Treadwell, of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, said he flew over the Beaufort Sea on a Coast Guard flight this week for hundreds of miles without seeing any multi-year ice ... The Snow and Ice Data Center said Thursday that the Beaufort Sea lost even... (Anchorage Daily News)
Newsweek: Why Canada no longer hates the U.S. Sep 17, 2009
A dispute over fishing rights is brewing in the Beaufort Sea. And Obama may ramp up the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, even as Canada is set to pull back its own troops in 2011. (MSNBC -- International)
Chevron subsidiary drops North Slope leases Sep 15, 2009
An Alaska Division of Oil and Gas report also showed Pioneer Natural Resources Alaska withdrawing from a 20 percent position in four Beaufort Sea leases it acquired in 2007. Supply-chain services company changes name. (Anchorage Daily News)
Exxon well drilled and cased at Point Thomson Sep 14, 2009
The remote field straddles the Beaufort Sea coastline about 60 miles east of Prudhoe Bay. Exxon has said it aims to produce 10,000 barrels of gas condensate per day for shipment down the trans-Alaska oil pipeline. (Anchorage Daily News)
North Slope output holds level Sep 12, 2009
The Endicott field in the Beaufort Sea showed the strongest jump in production, averaging 13,206 barrels a day compared with 3,055 in July. The field was down in July because BP was replacing the production control system. (Anchorage Daily News)
Arctic village has that sinking feeling Sep 9, 2009
The hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk grew up in the 20th century on a spit of gravelly land hooking out into the Arctic's Beaufort Sea, at latitude 69 degrees north, 1,500 miles from the U.S. border, beyond the continent's treeline and amid a tundra landscape of numberless lakes framed by drier land overlaid with moss, lichens and shrubs. Today's Tuk is a jumble of homely wood-frame houses, in white or pale blue or red, beneath power lines that sag alongside dirt roads leading to the peninsula's tip, "The... (MSNBC -- Environment)
Friendlier Arctic seas bring opportunity -- and risk Sep 6, 2009
One of them was a potentially fatal illness on a cruise ship in the icy Beaufort Sea, hundreds of miles from a large surgery center, and more than a thousand nautical miles from a permanent Coast Guard station ... His company is building Royal Dutch Shell's $150 million Arctic supply ship to support offshore exploration drilling in the Beaufort Sea. (Anchorage Daily News)
Alaska editorial: State's future will rely on oil leases Sep 4, 2009
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently reaffirmed a lower court decision upholding the environmental review that allowed the federal government to sell 92 Beaufort Sea leases east of Barrow in 2007. The court said the Minerals Management Service took the required "hard look" at the environmental effects of the lease sale. (Juneau Empire)
Canada protests US fishing ban in disputed Arctic waters Sep 4, 2009
The new flare-up in a long-simmering territorial dispute over an 8,000-square-mile section of the Beaufort Sea has come to light less than two weeks before Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to visit President Barack Obama at the White House. Story tools. (Anchorage Daily News)
BP cuts threaten Alaska's oil field contractors Sep 3, 2009
5 billion to develop its Liberty oil field in the Beaufort Sea. BP isn't the only Alaska oil producer tightening its belt this year. (Anchorage Daily News)
Climate trouble may be bubbling up in lakes of the far north Aug 31, 2009
Dallimore, who has long researched hydrates as energy sources, believes a breakdown of such huge undersea formations may have produced conical "hills" found offshore in the Beaufort Sea bed, some of them more than 100 feet high. With underwater robots, he detected methane gas leaking from these seabed features, which resemble the strange hills ashore here that the Inuvialuit, or Eskimos, call "pingos." And because the coastal plain is subsiding and seas are rising from warming, more permafrost... (Anchorage Daily News)
Federal appeals court OKs 2007 Beaufort lease sale Aug 29, 2009
An appeals court has ruled that the federal government did not violate environmental law when it conducted a 2007 oil and gas lease sale in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's northern coast ... Shell, the major leaseholder in the Beaufort Sea, was not a part of the lawsuit. (Anchorage Daily News)
Canada considers Arctic fishing ban Aug 25, 2009
Floating i 00004000 ce in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska ... Canada considers Beaufort Sea fishing ban ... Canadian officials are quietly exploring a possible moratorium on large-scale commercial fishing in the Beaufort Sea, a move that would match a announced last week by the U.S. government. (Anchorage Daily News)
* Canadian PM dives in sub for Arctic Aug 21, 2009
The two allies also cannot agree on the resource-rich Beaufort Sea, which touches both Alaska and Canadas northern territories. Since becoming prime minister in 2006, Harper has made Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic a key priority of his government. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World Business)
Eni aims for first oil flow at North Slope field in 2010 Aug 19, 2009
It's the second such plan the company has submitted for the field, which is centered in the shallow waters of the Beaufort Sea north of the onshore Kuparuk oil field. The project still involves producing Nikaitchuq's heavy, viscous oil from two drill pads, one offshore and one onshore. (Anchorage Daily News)
Michael Winship: Neighborhood Watch on planet Earth Aug 11, 2009
Arctic ice is in retreat from the shores of Barrow, Alaska, along the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and west of Canada s Northwest Territories, and from the Bering Glacier, among many other sites. The photographs demonstrate starkly how global warming is changing the Arctic, The Guardian noted. (Medfield Press, MA)
Full Story » Aug 10, 2009
Vast expanses of Arctic ice melt in summer heat - Yahoo. Search Type Choose a search type from the items below. (Yahoo News -- Technology)
Joint expedition will map continental shelf Aug 10, 2009
EDMONTON, Alberta -- A joint U.S.-Canada expedition sailing this month to the icy waters off the northern coastline that both countries share will help map the farthest reaches of the North American continent, but it won't deal with a long-running dispute over a resource-rich part of the Beaufort Sea. Story tools. (Anchorage Daily News)
Recommended: Science Folks We Follow on Twitter Jul 29, 2009
Pieces of ice break off, dropping into the Beaufort Sea with splashes that sound remarkably similar to those produced by bass jumping in a still pond. I wade into the sea, break off a piece of ice, and pop it into my mouth. (Scientific American)
FISHING REPORT Jul 9, 2009
Dolphin are being caught as close as the Dead Tree Hole and the Beaufort Sea Buoy on out to NW Places, 14 Buoy and the 90-Foot Drop. Contact: EJW Outdoors 252-247-4725; www. (News & Observer -- Sports)
Citizen oversight a burden to Arctic oil Jun 30, 2009
The oil and gas potential in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas rivals that of the Gulf of Mexico ... Some groups add further complexity through endless legal action such as that which has current Chukchi and Beaufort sea exploration hog-tied. (Anchorage Daily News)
Exxon, state battle persists Jun 22, 2009
The state issued Exxon a permit to build a 50-mile ice road for hauling a rig to the remote field on the Beaufort Sea shoreline east of the big Prudhoe Bay field. Exxon spudded the initial well on May 8. (Anchorage Daily News)
Partial walrus estimate alarms conservation group Jun 21, 2009
Walruses occasionally move into the Beaufort Sea off northern Alaska and the East Siberian Sea on the Russian side. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have been working since 2006 on a full walrus estimate with their Russian counterparts using thermal imaging. (USA Today -- Tech)
U.S.: Alaska polar bear numbers declining Jun 20, 2009
Fewer polar bears have survived in the southern Beaufort Sea, which extends from northern Alaska to parts of Canada, and in the Chukchi and Bering Seas between northwestern Alaska and Russia, the agency's draft population assessments show ... 3 percent annual decline in the polar bear population in the southern Beaufort Sea between 2001 and 2007, with the total numbers likely hovering between 1,397 and 1,526 animals, according to the draft assessments. (MSNBC -- Environment)
Count of walruses vexes scientists Jun 19, 2009
Walruses occasionally move into the Beaufort Sea off northern Alaska and the East Siberian Sea on the Russian side. Working since 2006Fish and Wildlife Service officials have been working since 2006 on a full walrus estimate with their Russian counterparts using thermal imaging. (MSNBC -- Environment)
Polar Bear And Walrus Populations In Trouble Jun 19, 2009
There are two polar bear populations in Alaska: a Southern Beaufort Sea stock, which is shared with Canada, and a Chukchi/Bering Sea stock which is shared with Russia ... For the Southern Beaufort Sea polar bear stock, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated a minimum population of 1,397 bears and an annual human-caused mortality of 54 animals, well above the calculated sustainable rate of 22 animals per year ... The stock assessment states that the Southern Beaufort Sea population is now... (Science Daily)
Mercury in Mackenzie River delta dramatically higher than previously believed Jun 17, 2009
Researcher Jennifer Graydon analyzed water in the Mackenzie River as it flowed north into the Beaufort Sea ... The Mackenzie River empties in the Beaufort Sea at the western edge of the Northwest Territories. (EurekAlert!)
Global Responsibility To Help Vulnerable Communities Adapt Jun 4, 2009
1, 2009) Skyrocketing coastal erosion occurred in Alaska between 2002 and 2007 along a 40-mile stretch of the Beaufort Sea, a new study finds. The surge of erosion in recent years, averaging more than double. (Science Daily)
EarthTalk Q&A: climate, peat and people May 21, 2009
A solid link between global warming and polar bear mortality emerged in 2004 when researchers were surprised to find four drowned bears in the Beaufort Sea off Alaskas North Slope. The meltdown of sea icethe polar ice cap had retreated a record 160 miles to the northforced the bears to swim unusually long distances to find solid ice, which they depend on as hunting and fishing platforms and for rest and recuperation. (MSNBC -- Environment)
Eskimo family seeks $200 million in oil-field spat May 18, 2009
Ten months ago, the family won a key victory: A federal judge ordered BP to stop using a drill site on the 40-acre allotment -- which juts into the Beaufort Sea -- to access the offshore Lisburne oil pool. Also, the judge said the BIA, which did not act on the family's complaints, neglected its duty as a trustee to protect the family's financial interests. (Anchorage Daily News)
Tale of 1988 whale rescue in Barrow is headed for Hollywood May 8, 2009
PUTTING KAKTOVIK ON THE RADAR SCREEN : A giant white sphere dominates the skyline of this tiny village, a remote outpost on the frozen shores of the Beaufort Sea. But until this week, very few local residents had ever seen the inside of the station, built in 1953, or even had a good grasp on what exactly it was for, says an Elmendorf Air Force Base spokesman. (Anchorage Daily News)
Alaska’s OCS Resources Critical to Successful Energy Policy May 7, 2009
Keeping Alaska s OCS lease sales, exploration, and development programs on schedule, especially in the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea, is critically important to this effort ... Of tremendous importance to the nation is a little appreciated fact: Exploration for and production of oil and gas from the Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Basins are critical for maintaining both the viability and longevity of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline (TAPS) and the existing producing oil fields on the North Slope. (Human Events Online)
Alaskans dispute oil leasing plans Apr 17, 2009
The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, America's Arctic Ocean, together with the Northern Bering Sea, make up one of the most abundant marine ecosystems in the world ... Despite this, the Bush administration aggressively pushed a plan to massively expand offshore oil drilling in Alaska, including Bristol Bay and the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas ... Based on historical rates of decline, we will be operating at 500,000 barrels per day by 2015, years before the first oil is transported from the Chukchi and... (Anchorage Daily News)
What the oil spill of 1989 has taught us Apr 16, 2009
A spill cooperative on the North Slope, Alaska Clean Seas, was expanded and beefed up with new equipment and personnel, and its coverage was eventually extended from the onshore producing oil fields to the Alaska Beaufort Sea, where exploration was underway. There was also considerable collateral damage for the industry in Alaska. (Juneau Empire)
Weighing in on offshore drilling Apr 15, 2009
The mayor of the North Slope Borough said new oil and gas projects in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas aren't worth the risk ... "We've drilled 30 wells in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea," he said. (Anchorage Daily News)
Interior secretary to visit Alaska Apr 13, 2009
Ken Salazar, the new U.S. Interior Secretary, plans to visit Alaska on Monday and Tuesday to gather opinions about the federal government's proposed oil and gas lease sales in the Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea and the Bristol Bay region ... Beaufort Sea Proposal: Two lease sales, in 2013 and 2015. (Anchorage Daily News)
Reading the North Apr 5, 2009
The blurb: "Every year without fail, caribou from the Yukon and Alaska set off in early April to a small corner of Alaska to give birth to their young. The journey -- an ordeal of mountains and blizzards, ravenous wolves, scant forage and river crossings with ice chunks the size of pick-up trucks -- is the longest migration of any land animal on earth. Despite these formidable obstacles, the females find their way to the calving grounds on the coast of the Beaufort Sea, deliver their calves in... (Anchorage Daily News)
Drilling the Arctic for Energy: Does tapping Alaskan oil to increase energy independence come at our peril? Mar 25, 2009
An iceberg floats in Alaska's Beaufort Sea, a potential area for expanded offshore oil and gas extraction ... My overall hope is that the government will reinstate a moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploitation, consider terminating leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, and not offer up Bristol Bay in the Bering Sea as well. (Scientific American)
Exxon Valdez, 20 years later Mar 24, 2009
The Bush administration had even more ambitious plans for other waters in the Arctic opening 40 million acres in the Chukchi Sea and 33 million acres in the Beaufort Sea for possible development. It sold one lease, now under court challenge, covering 2. (International Herald Tribune -- Ed/Op)
Global warming leaving its mark on polar bears Mar 19, 2009
Polar bears are accomplished swimmers -- their Latin name is ursus maritimus -- yet in late 2004, four polar bears were found dead after drowning in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska, likely the victims of a heavy sea. According to scientists' estimates, some 25 polar bears may have died in that incident. (Yahoo! Asia News)
Alaska drilling ruling vacated, future uncertain Mar 10, 2009
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - An appeals court has vacated a decision that blocked Shell Oil's planned exploratory drilling program in the Beaufort Sea, but representatives of the company and the environmental and Native groups challenging the development said Monday they had no indication whether any change in policy would result ... That November ruling found that the U.S. Minerals Management Service failed to adequately review environmental impacts when it authorized Shell's plan for... (Scientific American)
Court vacates Shell Alaska drilling decision Mar 9, 2009
A federal appeals court has vacated an opinion issued last year that halted Shell Oil Co. drilling plans for the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's northern coast, leaving both sides in the case wondering what the action means ... A panel of the court in November concluded that the federal Minerals Management Service improperly granted Shell permission for exploratory drilling in the Beaufort Sea ... The company postponed exploration for 2009 on leases it holds in the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea off... (Anchorage Daily News)
Work on Nikaitchuq oil project to continue through the winter Mar 7, 2009
ENI's plan is to drill 71 wells with about a third drilled from an oshore production pad built near Oliktok Point, on the Beaufort Sea coast north of the producing Kuparuk River field. The remaining wells would be drilled from an offshore gravel production island that would be built three miles offshore in a planned second phase of the project. (Juneau Empire)
Oil field development curtailed Mar 3, 2009
The Nikaitchuq field is located in the shallow waters of the Beaufort Sea north of the giant Kuparuk oil field. According to the trade journal Petroleum News, Eni planned to spend $1. (Anchorage Daily News)
Erosion Rates Double Along Portion Of Alaska's Coast Mar 2, 2009
1, 2009) Skyrocketing coastal erosion occurred in Alaska between 2002 and 2007 along a 64 kilometer (40 mile) stretch of the Beaufort Sea, a new study finds ... Average annual erosion rates along this segment of the Beaufort Sea, which lies North of Alaska, had already climbed from about 6 ... The authors also documented sections of Beaufort Sea coastline that eroded more than 24 m (80 ft.) during 2007. (Science Daily)
Arctic team targets key ice data Mar 1, 2009
This, he says, is distributed northward by local currents and eddies from the Chukchi Shelf into the Beaufort Sea where it has played a significant role in the major retreat of summer sea-ice in the western Arctic. "If you think about a piece of ice and you start heating it from above but not from below, this might be an analogue to what [other models] are doing," he explained. (BBC News -- Science)
Inside Alaska business Mar 1, 2009
Shell also returned 28 of its federal leases in the Beaufort Sea ... Smith emphasized that the relinquishment of both the Alaska Peninsula and Beaufort Sea leases occurred as part of Shell's active management of its lease holdings and did not signal any diminution of Shell's interest in Alaska. (Anchorage Daily News)
Alaska Coasts Melting -- And Not Just the Ice Feb 21, 2009
Some stretches of the state's northern shore along the Beaufort Sea receded by more than 80 feet (25 meters) in summer 2007 alone, when. In the past, spurts of erosion had often been linked to storms, but there were no major storms in 2007. (National Geographic)
North Pole Explorers Trek 100 Days, 800 Miles to Confirm Arctic Melt Speed Feb 20, 2009
BP, Europes second-largest oil company, this summer plans to look for gas in the Beaufort Sea off Canadas northern coast. Shell is off northwest Alaska. (Bloomberg -- Canada)
Groups vow to fight directional drilling in ANWR Feb 20, 2009
For example, its Liberty exploration project in the Beaufort Sea, scheduled to begin next year, involves the longest directional drilling in the world: tapping oil six to eight miles north of the drill site. If Congress allowed access to ANWR, "we'd look at the opportunity," said BP spokesman Steve Rinehart. (Anchorage Daily News)
Beaufort Sea rapidly washes away shoreline Feb 19, 2009
Shoreline bluffs between Barrow and Prudhoe Bay are tumbling into the Beaufort Sea about twice as fast as they were just 25 years ago, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey ... Problems with erosion aren't new to the area -- a turn-of-the-century trading post in the region slipped into the Beaufort Sea in the 1980s -- but the loss of cultural sites in the vicinity might accelerate, the study noted. (Anchorage Daily News)
Alaska coastal area sees erosion double Feb 19, 2009
40-mile stretchThe study involved a 64-kilometer (40-mile) stretch of the Beaufort Sea ... Slipping into the sea Jones and his co-authors verified in another recent study the disappearance of cultural and historical sites along the same stretch of the Beaufort Sea. (MSNBC -- Environment)
Photos: Arctic coast erosion Feb 19, 2009
Beaufort Sea rapidly washes away shoreline ... In July of 2007, this nearly century-old whaling boat rested along the Beaufort Sea coast near Lonely. (Anchorage Daily News)
