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June 3, 2019

No Arctic-science events are scheduled for today.
Media

Like Denmark and Russia, Canada Says Its Extended Continental Shelf Includes the North Pole. Canada filed an extended continental shelf submission last week with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf that covers more than 460,000 square miles in the Arctic Ocean and includes the North Pole - which Russia and Denmark have also included in their submissions. "Defining our continental shelf is vital to ensuring our sovereignty and to serving the interests of all people, including Indigenous peoples, in the Arctic," Chrystia Freeland, Canada's minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement. Arctic Today
 
Indiana Salmon Hatchery to Raise Nation's First Genetically Modified Animal Cleared for Human Consumption. On a winding road on the outskirts of a small Rust Belt town in eastern Indiana, a fish hatchery is poised to raise the country's first genetically engineered animal approved for human consumption by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. AquaBounty Technologies, a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, altered the genetic makeup of the Atlantic salmon to include a gene from chinook salmon and DNA sequence from an eel-like species known as an ocean pout. Anchorage Daily News  
 
Bering Sea Survey Could Provide Insight on Cod Finds. U.S. scientists plan to survey the Bering Sea this summer and hope to shed light on why fish not normally seen in its northern stretches have been found there. Cod is caught in large numbers by commercial boats in the Bering Sea but typically hundreds of miles south of Nome. Yet, last fall, fisherman Adem Boeckmann, who lives outside Nome, said he found cod in some of his crab pots. Anchorage Daily News
 
PEARL's High Arctic Researchers Keep an Eye on the Ozone Layer. Midway up Ellesmere Island in Canada's High Arctic, near the Eureka weather station, scientists are using a variety of instruments to study the atmosphere and gauge how well the ozone hole is healing. At the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory, or PEARL, the most critical part of this year's work recently wrapped up. From February 25 to March 13, a team of researchers were busy gathering a variety of atmospheric data, to help double-check measurements taken by two satellites of the Earth's ozone. Nunatsiaq News

Canada Ratifies Treaty to Protect Arctic Ocean Fisheries. Canada has ratified the agreement to prevent unregulated high seas fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean, bringing the treaty one step closer to coming into force. "Canada is leading the way to protect our oceans and combat illegal fishing," said Jonathan Wilkinson, the minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, in a May 29 release on the ratification. Nunatsiaq News
 
Oil Whale Exxon Researchers Focus on Oil Spill Cleanup Methods for Use in Arctic Waters. What if you could predict the path of an oil spill on the ocean surface like a weather forecast? Or find a way to remove oil from oily waste water at sea? Those are the goals of two Dalhousie University research projects funded Friday under a $45-million federal program to improve oil spill response in Canada. CBC News  
 
Feds Plan to Investigate Spike in Gray Whale Deaths on West Coast, Declaring 'Unusual Mortality Event.' U.S. scientists said Friday they will investigate why an unusual number of gray whales are washing up dead on West Coast beaches. About 70 whales have been found dead so far this year on the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, the most since 2000. In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, 13 dead whales have washed ashore. About five more have been discovered on British Columbia beaches. That's a very small fraction of the total number of whales believed to have died, because most simply sink and others wash up in remote areas where they're not recorded. KQED
 
Thousands of Birds Perished in the Bering Sea. Arctic Warming May be to Blame. Thousands of puffins and other seabirds in the Bering Sea appear to have died in the winter of 2016 to 2017. The birds look like they starved to death, but the ultimate culprit was probably climate change, scientists say. From October 2016 to January 2017, more than 350 dead birds, mostly tufted puffins, washed ashore at St. Paul Island, Alaska, on the Bering Sea. Science News
Future Events

ACCAP Webinar: NWS Alaska Region to Provide Information on New WMO Climate Initiatives, June 4, 2019 (Webinar). The Arctic Regional Climate Center Network (ArcRCC-Network) is based on the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) RCC concept with active contributions from all the Arctic Council member countries. The Pan-Arctic Regional Climate Outlook Forum (PARCOF) is a flagship activity of the ArcRCC-Network to create a forum to meet directly with Arctic users of climate information.
 
Resilience in Rapidly Changing Arctic Systems, proposals close June 20, 2019. This joint Belmont Forum CRA calls for co-developed and co-implemented proposals from integrated teams of natural and social scientists, and stakeholders to address key areas of arctic resilience understanding and action. This collaboration of academic and non-academic knowledge systems constitutes a transdisciplinary approach that will advance not only understanding of the fundamentals of arctic resilience but also spur action, inform decision-making, and translate into solutions for resilience. The term "stakeholder" is used here in its broadest possible sense, allowing for co-development of projects with partners from, but not limited to, civil society, government, industry, NGOs, and Indigenous organizations.
   

Mark your calendars to attend IDA-8, which some have called one of the best Arctic gatherings around. Historically, this biennial symposium was co-hosted by U.S. National/Naval Ice Center (NIC) and the US Arctic Research Commission (USARC). In 2019, these partners will join forces with the Wilson Center's Polar Institute, and the Patuxent Defense Forum (run by the Patuxent Partnership), and St. Mary's College of Maryland as co-hosts. The now 2-day symposium will be held in the Ronald Reagan Building Amphitheater, in Washington, DC. The event will focus on a broad cross-section of naval and maritime operations and issues in an ice-diminishing Arctic. The symposium brings together nationally and internationally recognized experts on Arctic governance, geopolitics, marine operations, infrastructure, science, and environmental observations, from the local, regional, and pan-Arctic scale. Information on prior symposia, including lists of speakers, video clips, and copies of presentations, is available here. Attendance is free, and registration is now open, here
. The event will be webcast live, and video recorded.
 
18th International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering / 8th Canadian Permafrost Conference, August 18-22, 2019 (Quebec, Canada). Sustainable infrastructure development and permafrost science, in a climate change context, will be the focus of the discussions of this international conference.

2019 Sea Ice Symposium, August 18-23, 2019 (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada). IGS co-hosts a sea ice symposium every 5 years. The Centre for Earth Observation Science (University of Manitoba) is excited to be hosting the first IGS event to be held in Canada. The symposium will include oral and poster sessions, and will provide a friendly and intellectually stimulating environment to facilitate face-to-face interactions and networking. Additional activities will include an opening reception, a banquet dinner and a mid-symposium afternoon excursion. 

Arctic Futures 2050: Science and Policy for a Changing Arctic, September 4-6, 2019 (Washington, DC USA).  In 2019, the Study of Environmental Arctic Change  (SEARCH) and partners will convene Arctic scientists and decision makers to jointly forecast  Arctic research needed to inform policy in the coming decades. The conference also is intended to foster more effective and iterative collaborations among Arctic scientists and decision makers.

Alaska Unmanned Aircraft Systems Interest Group Meeting, September 23-26, 2019 (Fairbanks, Alaska USA). The Alaska Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is accepting submissions from potential speakers through May 1. Focus areas include policy/ regulations, research and education training, commercial aspects of UAS. More information will be available here.

Bridging Science, Art, and Community in the New Arctic, Sept. 23-25, 2019, (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia USA). The University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, VA, is hosting a conference and workshop entitled "Bridging Science, Art, and Community in the New Arctic" from Sept. 23-25, 2019, sponsored by the National Science Foundation Navigating the New Arctic program, with additional support from UVA's Institute for Humanities and Global Cultures, and Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation. The UVA Environmental Resilience Institute's Arctic CoLab is organizing the event, with assistance from the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS).

EU Arctic Forum, October 3-4, 2019 ( UmeƄ, Sweden). The European Commission, the European External Action Service, and the Government of Sweden will jointly organize a high-level EU Arctic Forum . The EU Arctic Forum will bring together key Arctic players and stakeholders to assess recent developments in the region and to discuss the new challenges ahead. The EU Arctic Forum will include several keynote addresses and two high-level panel sessions on the morning of 3 October. Foreign ministers from EU member states as well as the Arctic Council will be invited to participate.

Large-scale Volcanism in the Arctic: The Role of the Mantle and Tectonics, October 13-18, 2019 (Selfoss, Iceland). The American Geophysical Union (AGU) Chapman Conference will focus on the diversity of Arctic magmatism and tectonics from the Paleozoic to present-day. The conveners are Owen Anfinson, Bernard Coakley, Carmen Gaina, and Grace Shephard. The program will focus on five themes including: Theme I: pre-breakup and rifting;Theme II: seafloor spreading;Theme III: mantle-derived heterogeneity (including plumes and large-igneous provinces);Theme IV: subduction related volcanism, and, Theme V: HALIP and environmental effects.  The website (link above) is currently open for abstract submission and will soon open for meeting registration.
 
Understanding and Responding to Global Health Security Risks from Microbial Threats in the Arctic , November 6-7, 2019 (Hanover, Germany). The workshop will be planned as a collaboration between the U.S. National Academies Polar Research Board, Board on Life Sciences, and the Board on Global Health as well as the InterAcademy Partnership and the European Academies Science Advisory Council. Additional information about the project and a form to submit nominations (by April 5) can be found here. Contact Lauren Everett ( leverett@nas.edu) with any questions.

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