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October 20, 2014

capital Today's Congressional Action:  

The House and Senate are not in session.

Media  

 

Alaska Arctic Policy Commission Hears Concerns About Economy, Climate Change. After nearly two years of meetings and conferences in which members of the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission heard from Arctic stakeholders, the group made another stop in Barrow recently to hear from delegates again before submitting their final report. This time, the commission met with locals on the North Slope as part of the Week of the Arctic, an event featuring workshops, presentations and testimony, and hosted by the Institute of the North. Alaska Dispatch News

 

Report: Big Illegal Catches of Russian Crab Threaten Stocks, Flood Global Markets. Illegal crab harvests in the Russian Far East are threatening stocks and flooding markets, said a new report issued by the World Wildlife Fund. The illegal catches of crab in Russian waters of the Bering Sea and in Russia's Sea of Okhotsk are 1.7 to four times as high as the legal harvests, said the report, titled "Illegal Russian Crab: An Investigation of Trade Flow." Alaska Dispatch News

 

Nunavut's Polar Bear Collar, Tagging Plan Shows Big Gap Between Science, Inuit Knowledge. Increasing the polar bear quota in western Nunavut's McClintock Channel in exchange for permission to collar polar bears: that's a plan which could work, joked James Qitsualik of Gjoa Haven Oct. 17 during an otherwise heated discussion at the Kitikmeot Regional Wildlife Board meeting in Cambridge Bay. The talk between Nunavut's senior polar bear biologist Markus Dyck and the board showed there's still a huge gap between how Inuit and scientists want to count polar bears. Nunatsiaq Online

 

Aerial Drones Used to Study Killer Whales 100 Feet Away. A new initiative has been taken on by unmanned aerial vehicles by collaborating teams of marine biologists to study the behavior of killer whales, also known as orcas. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration NOAA used drones to capture their footage, according to The Westside Story. Auto World News

 

No Need for NATO Presence in Arctic - Lavrov. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday he sees no need of NATO presence in the Arctic. "We firmly believe that there are no problems in the Arctic which demand NATO participation, moreover, there are no problems there which demand military decisions," the minister said during a public lecture on Russia's foreign policy. According to Lavrov, long before the Ukrainian crisis, NATO said and continues saying that the military factor in the Arctic will increase amid the escalation of the fight for the resources. TASS Russian News Agency 

  

Canada flag Ottawa Curbs Fisheries in Arctic. The federal government has implemented a ban on new commercial fisheries in the western Arctic pending more research. The policy, announced Friday, has long been requested by environmental groups and follows a similar American decision enacted five years ago. "It's based on the same principles of wanting to apply true precautionary principles in advance of fisheries development," said Louie Porta of The Pew Charitable Trusts' Oceans North Canada. The Waterloo Record

 

Opinion: An Open Letter to Adm. Papp and Ambassador Balton. To Admiral Bob Papp, U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.), U.S. Special Representative for the Arctic U.S. Department of State and Ambassador David Balton, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Oceans and Fisheries with the U.S. Department of State: It was great to see you both in Washington, D.C. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Passing the Arctic Council Torch conference on Sept. 30. As you heard at the conference, both Canadian and Alaskan officials are very keen on the U.S. chairmanship working to promote economic development for the benefit of Arctic residents. Canada made this preference quite clear when it included as part of its chairmanship theme "development for the people of the North," with a focus on responsible Arctic resource development, safe Arctic shipping and sustainable circumpolar communities. The Arctic Sounder 

 

Coast Guard Seal USCG: Arctic Operational Readiness Remains a 'Work in Progress.' The Coast Guard has spent nearly four decades conducting research projects in the Arctic, and its efforts have increased over the last eight years as more vessel traffic and human activity in the area has tested the service's operational readiness in the region. "It's a difficult area to do anything in," said Rich Hansen, the service's Arctic coordinator at the Research and Development Center (RDC). The Coast Guard is the nation's lead federal agency for ensuring maritime safety and security in the Arctic. Sea Power Magazine

Legislative Actionfutureevents  

 

The House and Senate did not formally consider Arctic legislation Friday.

Future Events

  

2014 FAMOS School and Workshop #3, October 21-24, 2014 (Woods Hole, MA). The Forum for Arctic Ocean Modeling and Observational Synthesis (FAMOS) is an international effort to focus on enhancing collaboration and coordination among Arctic marine and sea ice modelers, theoreticians and observationalists synthesize major results from the field studies and coordinated numerical experiments. The major themes of workshop include but not limited by studies focused on: predictions; Arctic observational and modeling initiatives; fate of sea ice in models and observations; atmospheric, sea ice and ocean dynamics; process studies and parameterizations; model validation and calibration; numerical improvements and algorithms; ecosystems, biological issues, and geochemistry.

 

Transatlantic Science Week 2014, October 27-28, 2014 (Toronto, Canada). The purpose of the annual Transatlantic Science Week (TSW) is to promote enhanced cooperation between Canadian, American and Norwegian stakeholders in research, innovation and higher education. TSW is an arena where different stakeholders can meet with the purpose of developing long-term collaborations or partnerships. The conference also hopes to strengthen the linkages that currently exist between the research and education domains. Finally, TSW also provides an excellent arena for dialogue between the research communities and policymakers. 

  

Oil Spill Response 25 Years After the Exxon-Valdez and in the Wake of Macondo 252: What have we learned and what are we missing? October 28-29, 2014. (University of New Hampshire). The University of New Hampshire Center for Spills in the Environment and the School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering will host a forum entitled Oil Spill Response 25 years After the Exxon Valdez and in the Wake of Macondo 252, What Have We Learned and What Are We Missing? Questions to be addressed include: what have we learned from these two spills? How can they inform future spill response? What should we do differently to address the spills of the future? Topics covered will include a) the types of spills that could occur in the future and the challenges they pose for response; b) the improvements needed in communication among responders, scientists, the public and politicians; c) the role of academic science in spill response; and d) the impacts of new scientific methods, such as molecular biology, on impact assessment and restoration. The forum will feature an array of speakers who played key roles during the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon spills.  After an opening overview of oil spills by Gary Shigenaka, NOAA Office of Response and Restoration, Captain Ed Page, Chief of Coast Guard Operations during the Exxon Valdez oil spill and Dr. Robert Spies, Chief Science Advisor to the Governments on the Exxon Valdez spill will kick off the discussion.  Then Thad Allen, former Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and Dr. Marcia McNutt, who was director of the U.S. Geological Survey, will present their perspectives on the Deepwater Horizon spill.  Speakers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, U.S. Arctic Research Commission, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, the American Petroleum Institute, Ocean Conservancy, and many other experts will offer perspectives on oil spills in the United States. 

 

Arctic Circle, October 31-November 2, 2014 (Reykjavik, Iceland).

The Arctic Circle is nonprofit and nonpartisan. Organizations, forums, think tanks, corporations and public associations around the world are invited to hold meetings within the Arctic Circle platform to advance their own missions and the broader goal of increasing collaborative decision-making without surrendering their institutional independence. The Arctic Circle will organize sessions on a variety of issues, such as: Sea ice melt and extreme weather; Polar law: treaties and agreements; The role and rights of indigenous peoples; Security in the Arctic; Shipping and transportation infrastructure; The prospects and risks of oil and gas drilling; Clean energy achievements and sustainable development; Arctic resources; Business cooperation in the Arctic; The role of Asian and European countries in the Arctic; Greenland in the new Arctic; Fisheries and ecosystem management; The science of ice: global research cooperation; Arctic tourism; The ice-dependent world: the Arctic and the Himalayas. 
 

US- Canada Northern Oil and Gas Research Forum, November 4-6, 2014 (Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada). Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and the Canadian Polar Commission in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior, are hosting the fourth Canada - United States Northern Oil and Gas Research Forum. The Northern Oil and Gas Research Forum is a biennial meeting with representation from government, industry, academia, Aboriginal groups and Northerners from both Canada and the United States. The Forum provides an opportunity to discuss current and future priorities for northern oil and gas research. The Forum will showcase the value of northern research in support of sound decision-making for oil and gas management.

 

Alaska Policy Commission. November 17-18, 2014 (Anchorage, Alaska). The Alaska Arctic Policy Commission (AAPC) has more important work to do in 2014. The Commission will strive to gather public input and engage with Alaskan communities, state agencies, federal partners, and the international organizations working in the Arctic. In order to meet our goals AAPC will convene three in-person meetings over the course of 2014 and focus on implementation and final recommendations. 

 

Maritime Risk Symposium, November 18-19, 2014 (Los Angeles, CA, USA). The theme for this year's Symposium will be Worldwide Chokepoints and Maritime Risks. "Chokepoint" is a common military strategy term that refers to any enclosed space, corridor, or area where large numbers of personnel and/or resources are forced to pass through, with no reasonable alternate routes. Within the maritime environment, geographical features such as a strait or canal are considered chokepoints. The event is hosted by the Homeland Security Center of the University of Southern California.

 

The Arctic Biodiversity Congress, December 2-4, 2014 (Trondheim, Norway). The Arctic Biodiversity Congress will present and discuss the main scientific findings of the ABA; facilitate inter-disciplinary discussion, action and status updates on the policy recommendations in the ABA; provide scientific, policy, management, NGO, academia, Indigenous peoples and industry audiences the opportunity to collaborate around the themes of the ABA; advise CAFF on national and international implementation of the ABA recommendations and on the development of an ABA Implementation Plan for the Arctic Council; highlight the work of CAFF and the Arctic Council on circumpolar biodiversity conservation and sustainable development; and, contribute to mainstreaming of biodiversity and ecosystem services, ensuring that the recommendations of the ABA are implemented by not just governments, but many organizations and people across disciplines.

 

Arctic Change 2014, December 8-12, 2014 (Ottawa, Canada). The international Arctic Change 2014 conference aims to stimulate discussion and foster collaborations among people with a vested interest in the Arctic and its peoples. Coinciding with the pinnacle of Canada's chairmanship of the Arctic Council and marking ArcticNet's 10th anniversary, Arctic Change 2014 welcomes researchers, students, Northerners, policy makers, and stakeholders from all fields of Arctic research and all countries to address the numerous environmental, social, economical and political challenges and opportunities that are emerging from climate change and modernization in the Arctic. With over 1000 participants expected to attend, Arctic Change 2014 will be one of the largest trans-sectoral international Arctic research conferences ever held in Canada. 

  

AGU Fall Meeting, December 15-19, 2014 (San Francisco, CA, USA). With nearly 24,000 attendees, the AGU Fall Meeting is the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world. The AGU Fall Meeting brings together the entire Earth and space sciences community for discussions of emerging trends and the latest research. The technical program includes presentations on new and cutting-edge science, much of which has not yet been published.

 

Arctic Frontiers: Climate and Energy, January 18-23, 2015. The earth is in the midst of major climate changes. The Arctic is experiencing the impact of these changes more and faster than other parts of the globe. Processes starting in the Arctic may have deep and profound impacts on other parts of the globe. At the same time the Earth's population is rising and with it the global energy demand. New and greener energy sources are gaining market shares, but still the energy mix of the foreseeable future will have a substantial fossil component. The Arctic is expected to hold major oil and gas resources, while the regions green energy potentials are less explored. The Arctic Frontiers conference is a central arena for discussions of Arctic issues. The conference brings together representatives from science, politics, and civil society to share perspectives on how upcoming challenges in the Arctic may be addressed to ensure sustainable development. Arctic Frontiers is composed of a policy section and a scientific section. 

  

Alaska Marine Science Symposium, January 19-23, 2015. (Anchorage, Alaska, USA). The symposium will feature a session on the Communicating Ocean Sciences, keynote addresses, poster sessions, and workshops. As in past years, the main content of the symposium is organized by large marine ecosystem. The 2015 schedule will be: Tuesday, January 20 - Gulf of Alaska; Wednesday, January 21 - Bering Sea; and Thursday, January 22 - Arctic Ocean. The details of the 2015 Alaska Marine Science Symposium program will be available in mid-November.

 

Symposium on Law and Governance in the Arctic, UCI LAW, January 30-31, 2015 (Irvine, California, USA).  The symposium will explore the effectiveness of existing governance in the Arctic region, strategies for improving effective implementation, and possible alternative governance regimes. A segment of the presented papers will be published in the UCI Law Review as a symposium. Presenters include: Betsy Baker, Michael Byers, Joseph DiMento, Tore Henriksen, Brian Israel, Timo Koivurova,Tullio Scovazzi, and Oran Young. 

 

Arctic Encounter Symposium 2015: Charting a Path to US Leadership in the Far North, January 30-31, 2015 (Seattle, Washington, USA). Additional details and registration dates TBA.


The Polar Geography and Cryosphere, April 21-25, 2015 (Chicago, IL, USA). The Polar Geography and Cryosphere Specialty Groups of the Association of American Geographers will host its annual meeting in Chicago to consider: current topics in human-environment interactions; current topics in politics, resource geographies, and extractive industries; current topics in Antarctic research; advances in cryosphere research; high latitude environments in a changing climate; an mountain ice and snow.

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