Getting Underway on the Bering Sea

USCGC Healy in the Bering Sea

(Editor's Note: This is among a series of reports from Tom Litwin of Smith College on his exploration of the effects of climate change in the Bering Sea)

Despite the increasing consensus among scientists that climate change is underway, particularly in the Arctic, the debate about its existence or causes is alive and well on Main Street – and the fishing community of Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Westward Seafoods’ Plant Manger Dave Boisseau points out that the dramatic increase in pollock stocks is, in part, responsible for Dutch Harbor’s current economic viability.

Dave talks about the other side of change that has occurred in the past five years — during the summer pollock “B” season, the water is warmer and fish stocks are moving north seeking colder water — but are the causes naturally occurring or due to human activity? With pollock moving north, the shore-based fishing fleet has to travel further, spending more time and expensive fuel to catch the fish. Then they have to get back to the plant while the fish is still fresh. Whatever the cause, the job gets more complicated and expensive.

If there is regulation regarding climate change, will it help or hurt the fishermen and the industry that supports them? Knowing the 200 years of boom and bust economic cycles that Dutch Harbor has experienced, it is a fair but complicated question. Dave asks, “Is the world coming to an end, is the sky falling?” These are loaded questions with an unabashed bias…. Show me the data.

About five miles from the processing plant, gathering accurate data is exactly what the scientist waiting near McGown’s dock are thinking about, surrounded by duffels and box after box of instrumentation and equipment. The USCGC Healy is standing 300 yards off (Click here to see images from the Healy's bow. The camera shoots regularly, even in the dark, so not all images are visible.) The Healy’s small boat, ferrying line handlers, dressed out in black and orange Mustang suits and orange helmets, puts the crew on the dock.

Slowly, the Healy saddles up to the dock, lines from the deck are tossed to the waiting line crew and the ship is secured. The aft deck crane swings over the side and we load our gear. It rises and disappears onto a deck 35 feet above. Larry Hott and cameraman Dave Litz document the action and the raw material for the Thin Ice story starts to roll in. One by one the science party climbs the gangway, gathers luggage from the deck and go looking for their staterooms.

At 1600 hours the ocean going tug James Dunlap is nudging her bow into the Healy’s starboard quarter facing the open water. Simultaneously, the Healy’s port bow thruster fires its powerful jet of water dockside. The result -- the Healy’s stern is held in place and pivots on the tug, while the bow thruster pushes the bow away from the dock and toward open water. This is one way to get a 420 foot ship, displacing 16,400 tons, away from the dock and pointed out to sea.

In the next installment…. The Healy sails through the night into 30 knot winds, rain, and horizontal snow. As the scientists set up their labs and instrumentation, the crash and clatter of icebreaking surrounds us.