Date: 02/10/1998

Number: 1

There is still ice covering the Chukchi Sea, but things are different this spring. Ordinarily we have two kinds of sea ice, landfast ice, and floe ice. The landfast ice begins at the beach and extends out a couple of miles or so. It rests on the ocean floor. Further out, where the water is deeper, the floe ice sits on the surface of the ocean. In the spring leads open between the landfast ice and the floe ice. It is in these leads that the bowhead whales migrate through to the high Arctic, and the Inupiat Eskimo follow in pursuit as they have for centuries.
This year, there is very little land fast ice. The floe ice is nearly to the beach. We do not know why this is. Perhaps El Nino? How will this effect whaling? Will the ducks come early this year? What about the walrus?
This is an unusual spring, and we have many questions as we continue to wait and watch for open water.

Point Hope, AK

Latitude: 68.5 Longitude: -165.8

Observed by: Sheila
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