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January 29, 2021
Bowhead whales: A recent success story
Bowhead whales are true northern creatures, swimming only in cold oceans off Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Svalbard and Russia. These bus-size whales have the largest mouths in the animal kingdom, can live for 200 years and can go without eating for more than a year due to their remarkable fat reserves. Bowheads are also a rare wildlife rebound story, with the population north and west of Alaska now numbering more than 16,000. That’s up from the 1,000 or so animals Yankee whalers left behind in bloody waters at the turn of the last century.
November 17, 2020
Some good news from the thin ice
A group of researchers have found that the ocean floor around Bering Strait still seems to be capturing billions of bits of carbon that might otherwise lead to an even warmer planet.
September 19, 2020
Postcards from a formerly frozen icebreaker: Part 60 — Last Ice
We are now in open water and have left the ice behind. In the last hours we cruised through the last remnants of ice. Little chunks floating alone, their hours numbered out here in the water that is now creeping slightly above the melting point.
September 18, 2020
Postcards from a formerly frozen icebreaker: Part 59
There are many reasons to go out and recover the various assets that we’ve placed out on the ice. And so this is now our mission with Tryoshnikov; to finish what we’ve started in the past days with Polarstern.
September 17, 2020
Postcards from a formerly frozen icebreaker: Part 58
Sometimes goodbyes are hard. Like this morning. Two ships together, then the lines are reeled in. Subtle movements and a slow parting. The railings of both vessels crowded with people, initially just a few feet apart. Waving. Photos. Crying.
September 16, 2020
Postcards from a formerly frozen icebreaker: Part 57
As with last time, it again felt like an invasion. Today, after the ships were stable alongside each other, we started having some exchange of people. An invasion of new, strange faces…. of different energy. This leg of MOSAiC is really coming to an end now.
September 15, 2020
Postcards from a formerly frozen icebreaker: Part 56
Already starting to miss this place and we are not gone yet! And standing here on the working deck, feeling a bit sentimental, looking out from the side of the ship: A mixture of open water and small chunks of ice floating around as we all sit here embedded in the diminishing ice pack. It is misty and foggy.
August 17, 2020
Postcards from a (formerly) frozen icebreaker: Part 55
Our days lately have been strange. Searching around the ice in dense fog. It’s so hard to see anything, and especially some of these small buoys we’ve been hunting. But today was a beautiful day. Bluebird conditions again. And it started out with a great bear.
August 16, 2020
Postcards from a (formerly) frozen icebreaker: Part 54
With the rapid decline of the MOSAiC floe in its last days, I became increasingly concerned about the stability of the L2 site and our flux sled there. A few weeks ago it was 7 nautical miles away, then over a couple days this ballooned up to 45 nautical miles.
August 15, 2020
Postcards from a (formerly) frozen icebreaker: Part 53
…things were quite different today. Basically no floe left. Instead just a collection of small pieces of ice. Fractured remnants of our home for the past 6.5 weeks. Little memories of Met City, the Transect, the Fortress, and all of the rest. Now all gone. What impeccable timing!
