Over 450 icebergs have drifted down into the North Atlantic shipping lanes, 363 of which have arrived over the past 7 days. This is forcing vessels to either dramatically lower their speed to navigate the icebergs, or take detours which can add up to 400 miles to the trip.
As first reported on Tuesday by The Maritime Executive, the Ronald H. Brown has returned to her home port of Charleston, South Carolina after being deployed for 1,347 days. This was longer than any other NOAA research vessel has been away from home.
An important new use for AIS surfaced in a recent study by the Wildlife Conservation Society. In a multi-member partnership of the WCS, NOAA, the US Coast Guard, Space Quest, Google and SkyTruth, research was performed that points to the possibility that AIS data could help to minimize the negative effects of shipping on wildlife.
As the demand for fossil fuels grows, energy companies are looking for new ways to access oil and natural gas deposits all over the Earth. The Arctic is estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to contain 26 billion barrels of oil and 130 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The incredible value of these deposits make the Arctic the center of a controversy over who has the right to drill for these resources and how they should be extracted.
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