NOAA Ship Fairweather: “We made it!”

by Ensign Hadley Owen, NOAA, Junior Officer, NOAA Ship Fairweather (S-220)
1200 hours, Saturday, August 18, 2012:  69°41.4’N  141°03.3’W, at anchor, 1.5 nautical miles west of Demarcation Point, on the United States/Canadian border
We made it!

I must admit, I had my doubts a week ago. But we made it safely through relatively ice-free seas to the northern border between Alaska and Canada’s Yukon Territory.
We were able to collect multibeam echo sounder data along the entire route. The area continues to be relatively shallow (8 to 25 meters) and relatively flat (1 to 1.5 meters of relief). However, dramatic ice scours and scars on the seafloor are easily visible in the data collected.

This “pseudo-side-scan” image – which looks at only a preliminary selection of the initial acoustic data recorded – was obtained in real time.

We are now surveying from both the Fairweather and from one of her launches (during the day, at least). By using both platforms, we are able to obtain even more soundings on our return track to Barrow and send the launch into shallower, near-shore areas.
But this update cannot be complete, I feel, without a personal first. Thanks to the eagle eyes from the Bridge, we had the first of two polar bear sightings from the Fairweather – this one a mother and her two cubs.

And now we are heading west.