Arctic Ocean now less salty

A new study has shown that the Arctic Ocean is becoming less salty due to an increase in the volume of freshwater flowing into it.

Bering strait, image taken by MISR satellite
Ecology & Science

Researchers have found that the Arctic Ocean is becoming less salty, because the amount of freshwater flowing through the Bering Strait into it has increased by 40 to 50 percent, over the past 30 years.

This finding is based on a new study by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. According to lead author Lee Cooper, “This could have a lot of downstream implications for how the Arctic Ocean works and connects with climate and related processes, including the intensity of mixing in the North Atlantic.”   

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From the Tip of an Iceberg to My Tap Water: Diving the Arctic Underworld and the St Lawrence River

Award-winning underwater cinematographer and documentary producer Nathalie Lasselin reflects upon her dive expeditions in the Arctic and her epic project to raise awareness about the state of fresh water in the St Lawrence River, closer to home in Montreal.

Words:
Nathalie Lasselin
Images:
Nathalie Lasselin
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Travel & Trips

It was the end of April, and it was supposed to be the end of winter. But once again, I had to refrain from putting my thick winter coat on the very top shelf of my wardrobe. I was already looking for the first barbecue party with friends, but the north was calling me—the Great Canadian North—and how could I say no to going back to the floe edge? So, I packed my winter coat, my diving and filming gear, and headed to a small village in the remote north called Pond Inlet. It was one of the isolated hamlets where the only road was the sea of either water or ice.

First ever underwater guided tour of HMS Erebus

Ryan Harris of Parks Canada's Underwater Archaeology Team reveals secrets of the wreck of the Franklin Expedition’s HMS Erebus.

Wrecks & Archaeology

In a video streamed live from the Queen Maud Gulf off Nunavut, underwater archaeologist Ryan Harris moved from stern to bow, stopping at a handful of different points along the wreck to share clues from the long-sunk vessel.

He started by inspecting two brass six-pounder canons, one of the first features the team saw with a remotely operated vehicle when they began inspecting the site with an “underwater robot”, after the 19th-century wreck was discovered late last summer.

Historic Franklin Expedition shipwreck identified as HMS Erebus

Canadian PM Stephen Harper confirms the wrecked Franklin expedition ship found last month in the Arctic has been identified as HMS Erebus.

The Victorian-era vessel became part of nautical folklore after it vanished in the mid-19th Century. Its captain, Sir John Franklin, had been searching for the fabled Northwest Passage.

Wrecks & Archaeology

Two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, were part of Sir John Franklin's doomed expedition in 1845 to find the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic Ocean to Asia.

The ships disappeared after they became locked in ice in 1846 and were missing for more than a century and a half until last month's discovery by a group of public-private searchers led by Parks Canada. It was not known until now which of the two ships had been found.

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Unlocking the secrets of the Greenland Shark

One of the dreams of any naturalist is to be the first to find and detail the life of a hidden or unknown animal first hand. Since 2003, scientific divers with the Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group (GEERG) have begun to unravel the mysterious life of the Greenland shark, which at over seven meters in maximum body length and exceeding a ton in weight, is the second largest carnivorous shark after the great white.

Words:
Jeffrey Gallant and Chris Harvey-Clark, PhD.
Images:
Jeffrey Gallant, Chris Harvey-Clark
Andy Murch
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Ecology & Science

Primarily a deepwater shark of the northern boreal oceans, Somniosus microcephalus is the only shark that patrols beneath the ice of the Arctic Circle. Hundreds of thousands of these sharks have been caught in directed fisheries, and yet little is known scientifically about the species. As GEERG scientists, we have been engaged in non-traditional research since 1998 of the ecology and behavior of the Greenland shark in order to elucidate some of the mysteries surrounding this enigmatic animal.

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High Arctic

The sea ice is about two metres thick above frigid Arctic waters over 300 metres deep—and we are camping on it! It’s a strange sensation, knowing that there is nothing but frozen water between you, and water so cold it kills in less than four minutes. This clearly had an effect on Martin, a Swedish photographer, who had a nightmare on his first night out on the ice. “I dreamed that my body heat was melting the ice underneath me and my sleeping bag was about to sink into the depths,” he said, “I’m glad I woke up.”

Words:
Louise Murray
Images:
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Travel & Trips

Leaving Ottawa in the throes of a sultry 28 degree heat wave, our next landing is at Iqualuit, some four hours later, where a quick foray outside into freezing temperatures for a cigarette, confirms our arrival in the high arctic. A couple of other stops in Nunavut, a Canadian Territory, home to the Inuit people and six hours after leaving Ottawa, we land near the village of Arctic Bay where the temperature hovers around zero in the weak spring sunshine amid flurries of snow.

High Arctic
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Claiming the North Pole

On August 2, 2007, the weather was good at the North Pole. The sea was calm, the water temperature was just -1° C, with the air at a balmy 0° C. That morning two Russian mini submarines, Bathyscaphe Mir-1 and Mir-2, were sent down and at noon, Mir-1 touched down on the seabed at 4,261m, planting the Russian flag

Words:
Gleb Cherniavsky
Images:
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Travel & Trips

An exclusive interview of Anatoly Sagalevich by the journalist Gleb Cherniavsky.

Gleb Cherniavsky (GC): First of all, our congratulations to you on your achievement. Let me first ask you, when did you get the idea of diving at the North Pole? And how did you get the idea that this was possible?

GC: What was your decision when you realized that you couldn’t modify the ice-breaker?

AS: We decided to use two vessels: The nuclear ice-breaker and the ice classified ship Academic Fedorov on which the Bathyscaphes would be based. On July 22, 2007, we set sail from the port of Murmansk.  The nuclear ice-breaker Russia went in front and cleared a passage in which the Academic Fedorov followed. We were finally heading to the North Pole.

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