Ice Service News

Dennis Bryant provided a link to a story about the USCG Cutter Bear in his March 18, 2020 newsletter. It is a great story about a great ship with a great Captain (Michael Healy) and a great crew. It shows that the right combination of ship and crew can perform miracles.This one ship, its Captain (and his wife who often shipped with him), and its crew did so many things so well that it has become the stuff of legends. I will not further discuss these adventures; some can be found in the article and the rest can be easily Googled.

The Coast Guard International Ice Patrol announced it has commenced operations for the 2019 ice season as of Feb. 5, 2019 and will resume production of the North American Ice Service (NAIS) daily iceberg warning products from its operations center in New London, Connecticut.The International Ice Patrol generates the iceberg warnings from February through August, when icebergs pose the greatest threat to transatlantic shipping. The Canadian Ice Service generates the iceberg warning products for the remainder of the year.

Developing the capability to discriminate between ships and icebergs in northern latitudes is a common interest shared by Canada’s Department of National Defense (DND) and the oil and gas industry. For DND, the focus is on ship detection for maritime security, whereas oil and gas companies are interested in detecting icebergs to ensure primarily the safety and also the productivity of offshore exploration and production operations. The Polar Epsilon and Polar Epsilon-2 applied…

The U.S. Coast Guard International Ice Patrol (IIP) is scheduled to take over responsibility Wednesday for issuing daily iceberg warnings for the North Atlantic Ocean from the Canadian Ice Service under the North American Ice Service (NAIS) collaboration marking the beginning of the 2014 ice season. In early February, the IIP will deploy the first ice reconnaissance detachment to Newfoundland, Canada to meet with Canadian partners and to conduct the initial aerial patrols of the season. Iceberg reconnaissance is conducted primarily with HC-130J aircraft from U.S.

The Sea Research Foundation opened its “Titanic – 12,450 Feet Below” in the Ocean Exploration Center of the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut in April of 2012. This year, the Foundation expanded the exhibit to include a gallery about the U.S. Coast Guard International Ice Patrol as a positive outcome of the tragedy. The addition officially opened in April of 2013, the month that also marked the Ice Patrol’s centennial. In April of 1912, the RMS Titanic, on her maiden voyage, struck an iceberg near the Tail of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, and sank with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.

So far this year only the southern passage has opened despite record low levels of Arctic sea ice. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the current extent is 760,000 square kilometers (293,000 square miles) below the previous record minimum extent in the satellite record (4.17 million square kilometers or 1.61 million square miles) which occurred on September 18, 2007. This difference is larger than the size of the state of Texas. The ice extent currently tracks nearly 50% below the 1979 to 2000 average minimum extent.

From the first voyages across the North Atlantic, icebergs have been a major threat to shipping interests. The most famous disaster was the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. On her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, the vessel struck an iceberg approximately 400 nautical miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. Less than 3 hours later the Titanic sank beneath the surface, taking with her over 1500 passengers (http://www.titanicuniverse.com/). There were many other ship-iceberg accidents before the Titanic.

Now traversing the Northwest Passage, the Ocean Watch crew - four professional sailors, a scientist and an educator - recently completed the deployment of three NOAA Global Drifter Program buoys. Dr. Ignatius Rigor, research scientist at the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory (UW-APL) Polar Science Center and Coordinator of the International Arctic Buoy Program (IABP) is directing these activities. This project, one of 8 scientific projects planned throughout the 13-month Around the Americas expedition…

Commander Denise Kruse will relieve Captain Raymond Chartier as Director of the National Ice Center (NIC), Commanding Officer of the Naval Ice Center (NAVICECEN),  and CO-Director of the North American Ice Service (NAIS), Suitland, MD at a ceremony to be held at the U.S. Navy Memorial Heritage Center in Washington, DC on December 16, 2008. Captain Chartier has been Director/Commanding Officer since May 23, 2007. Commander Kruse’s previous assignment was US Naval Central Command /Combined Maritime Force/Fifth Fleet Staff Oceanographer. NIC is a multi-agency operational center operated jointly by the U.S. Navy (through NAVICECEN), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Coast Guard.