RV Mirai’s bridge crew are somber today.  We just received the sad news of a crash of a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter in the Canadian Arctic in the area of McClure Strait north of Bank’s Island.  The reports we received here were that the helo with pilot,...

For anyone who believes for a second that the Arctic is some benign home to only polar bears and Inuit, and ice is melting away faster than we can measure and somehow no longer an impediment to shipping, we can attest that it is not quite so.  Certainly, there is...

The greatest problem with the Arctic is not the Arctic itself, it is the incredible ignorance of what it is truly like up here.  It starts with media hype about global warming claiming an “ice free Northwest Passage”, which leads to incorrect conclusions that...

It is the Arctic.  Everything changes constantly.  Weather changes, the ice changes.  Plans change.  Most often it is the variability in ice conditions that cause plans to change.  This time, it was weather. Having passed the Arctic Circle and...