'Hesperides' is one of the oceanographic vessels studying the recent changes in the Arctic Sea. The ice extension, max. in February and min. in September, is reducing in Barents area and increasing in the opposite side, towards Bering Sea. The reason: the first segment of water is warmer, plus 1-2ºC in the last 40 years.
But less ice generates another type of zooplancton and specially a type of algae, that (simplifying for this post) increase the viscosity of the plancton, obstructing the gills in small fishes and breaking the food chain. Lower captures in code fish (lately reduced to one third of the usual in the area) could be a direct consequence of it.
The worse conclusion of this scientific expedition, is that the polar banquise is contaminated with more than 200.000 chemical substances and the clouds are charged of ancient CFC and other gases (vulcans, petrochemicals,...), creating the greenhouse effect. Thus natural evolution and contamination is accelerating the process of ice reduction. For reluctants to the climatic change theory, nothing should delay immediate campaigns to clean the waters and the atmosphere.
The thickness of the ice cap is varying between 1,8 to 3,1 meters (young and thinner ice replacing old), with a negative record in extension in 2007, but more important is what we have in a variable bottom. Ocean currents and seafloor drifts are strong. There are also good news but it's better to be prudent and wait for deeper analysis. They got cylinders containing ice formed during the last 400 years to study the actual impact over the ice cap.
Of course, most of scientific participants in polar expeditions are against oil drilling in Arctic areas. Be sure, the conclusion and recommendations they will offer will be according to their premises. But our professional commitment would be to satisfy what the world is demanding as comsumption without any direct or collateral damage to the nature. Environment specialists should be our partners and not our enemies.
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