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Today's C
ongressional Action:
The House and Senate are not in session.
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Media
 Out of Campaign Spotlight, Obama Keeps Focus on Arctic, Official Says. The people vying to succeed him may not be talking on the campaign trail about the Arctic, but President Barack Obama continues to view it as a top priority, a White House official said Wednesday. Mark Brzezinski, chairman of Obama's
Arctic Executive Steering Committee, said the administration wants to be sure that the next president will continue to focus on the far north. "What we wanted to do was to produce an outcome that would transcend this administration, and make the case for it, and then whoever is elected, we hope, seizes that baton and runs with it," Brzezinski said in a meeting with Alaska Dispatch News staff.
Alaska Dispatch News
DFO Opens Restricted Fall Beluga Harvest in Nunavik. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has approved a fall beluga harvest for Nunavik hunters, although it's restricted and limited to certain communities. The region's total allowable take of beluga whales under its 2014-2016 management plan
came to an early close in mid-August-a total of 762 whales-leaving a number of communities short of their own local quotas. That also signaled an early closure to a harvesting season that typically runs into November.
Nunatsiaq Online
 Alaska Gov. Walker Nominates the Arctic Ocean's US Waters for Oil Leasing. Gov. Bill Walker has nominated the two seas covering the Arctic Ocean's U.S. continental shelf for inclusion in the federal government's five-year offshore leasing program, a proposal shared with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell before her trip north to attend the Alaska Federation of Natives convention on Friday. The action is an unusual step meant to encourage Jewell to include the Beaufort and Chukchi seas in the 2017 to 2022 outer-continental shelf lease plan, a move that would leave the door open for future oil exploration off Alaska's coast, state officials said.
Alaska Dispatch News
Interior Official to Lead Marine Sanctuary Group. Kristen Sarri will head the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Sarri, the Department of the Interior's principal deputy assistant secretary for policy management and budget, has been named as the group's president and CEO. She will join the foundation Monday.
E&E News
 Pentagon Cautious About About Arctic Investments. As ice caps continue to melt, Pentagon officials have grown increasingly concerned about the potential for great power competition in the Arctic. But the Defense Department remains cautious when it comes to investing in capabilities. "Climate change has really focused a lot of attention" there, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said at a recent conference.
National Defense Magazine
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Legislative Action
No Arctic legislation was formally considered yesterday.
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Future Events
** New this week**
Promoting Urban Sustainability in the Arctic: Public Event, October 21, 2016, Washington, DC.
The George Washington University Dept. of Geography, IERES, and the Sustainability Collaborative present Partnerships for Int'l Research and Education (PIRE) "Promoting Urban Sustainability in the Arctic: Public Event" and reception to follow. A panel discussion, from 4:00 to 5:00 pm on the GW campus, on social sustainability in Arctic conditions, the economic role of cities, Arctic urban planning, and the political framing of sustainability in the Arctic. More info here.
Arctic Technology Conference, October 24-26, 2016 (St. John's, Canada). Founded in 1969, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is the world's foremost event for the development of offshore resources in the fields of drilling, exploration, production and environmental protection. The Arctic Technology Conference (ATC) is built upon OTC's successful multidisciplinary approach, with 14 technical societies and organizations working together to deliver the world's most comprehensive Arctic event.
** New this week **
Geopolitics, Security and Energy in the Arctic. October 25, 2016 (Washington, DC USA). While commercial, environmental, and local community development aspects of the Arctic have received increasing attention in Washington in recent times, the US also faces growing national security challenges in the Arctic region. This is a worrying development, as the United States risks not being able to appropriately respond and posture for a rapidly changing security situation in the Arctic. The Atlantic Council will host this event to consider these challenges.
Fulbright Arctic Week. October 25-27 (Washington, DC)
The 18-month Fulbright Arctic Initiative supports U.S. priorities on Arctic issues and increasing mutual understanding between Americans and those in other countries. As a culmination of the program, 17 scholars will be presenting their work at public events. Other invited speakers will include officials from the Inuit Circumpolar Council, Arctic Executive Steering Committee, and U.S. Arctic Youth Ambassadors, among other. For more information, please visit the
Fulbright Arctic Week website
and/or
register your interest for updates
.
October 25, 2-5:30pm - Smithsonian Natural History Museum
October 26, 2-5pm - Arctic Policy Dialogue at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
October 27, 9am-4:30pm - Fulbright Arctic Symposium at the National Academy of Sciences (Constitution Ave. location)
ARCUS Arctic Research Seminar Series with George Divoky, October 26, 2016 (Washington, DC USA). The Arctic Research Consortium of the US (ARCUS) is pleased to announce the Arctic Research Seminar Series event "Years of Change: a seabird responds to a melting Arctic." The ARCUS Arctic Research Seminar Series brings some of the leading Arctic researchers to Washington, DC to share the latest findings and what they mean for decision-making. These seminars will be interest to Federal agency officials, Congressional staff, NGOs, associations, and the public.
Towing Safety Advisory Committee, October 2016 Meeting, October 26-27, 2016 (Washington, DC USA). The Towing Safety Advisory Committee will meet in Washington, DC, to review and discuss recommendations from its Subcommittees and to receive briefs. This committee is established in accordance with, and operates under the provisions of, the Federal Advisory Committee Act. As stated in 33 U.S.C. 1231a, the Towing Safety Advisory Committee provides advice and recommendations to the Department of Homeland Security on matters
relating to shallow-draft inland and coastal waterway navigation and
towing safety.
1st International Muskox Health Ecology Symposium, November 7-10, 2016 (Calgary, AB Canada).
The goal of this symposium is to share knowledge on muskox health ecology and sustainability across a variety of international stakeholders including community members/users, industry, wildlife management, and academia. We will discuss: the values, ecological, economic, social and cultural, of muskoxen; population status and trends; threats, vulnerabilities and resilience or sustainability; knowledge gaps; disease ecology; and existing and new tools for muskox health monitoring and research. For more information, please contact Susan Kutz.
ArcticNet annual Scientific Meeting 2016, December 5-9, 2016 (Winnipeg, MP Canada).
ArcticNet
will host its 12th Annual Scientific Meeting.
The ASM2016 will welcome researchers, students, Inuit, Northerners, policy makers and stakeholders to address the numerous environmental, social, economical and political challenges and opportunities that are emerging from climate change and modernization in the Arctic. As the largest annual Arctic research gathering held in Canada, ArcticNet's ASM is the ideal venue to showcase results from all fields of Arctic research, stimulate discussion and foster collaborations among those with a vested interest in the Arctic and its peoples.
** New this week **
IV International Forum, March 2017 (Arkhangelsk, Russian Federation)
Arkhangelsk will host the Forum. The Forum will be titled Human in the Arctic and will be aimed at putting together joint efforts of the international community to promote effective development of the Arctic region as a territory for comfort life, work and leisure. The Forum will be attended by government officials, representatives of international organizations and prominent business communities, centers for political studies, Polar researchers and members of the international Arctic expeditions, foreign political scientists and economists, Russian and foreign journalists from leading international media organizations. The Forum will be attended by the President of the Russian Federation, Mr. Vladimir Putin. Additional information will be announced
here
.
** New this week**
The Arctic Science Summit Week, March 31- April 7, 2017 (Prague, Czech Republic). This event is sponsored by the University of South Bohemia in Cecke Budejovice, the Faculty of Science, and the Center for Polar Ecology of the Czech Republic. The Science Symposium will address the three sub-themes: changes in the Arctic, global implications of Arctic changes, and images of global change on the Arctic.
** New this week **
Ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences: People and Places (ICASS IX), June 8-12, 2017 (Umeå, Sweden).
ICASS IX's theme is People & Place. Research on social sciences and humanities have a great responsibility to address the challenges for sustainable development in the Arctic, with a specific focus on the many different parts of the Arctic and the people that live there. The multiple Arctics have lately been addressed by many policy makers and researchers. The purpose is often to counteract the stereotypic understanding of the Arctic too often represented by icebergs and polar bears. A focus on people and place highlights the many variances across the region in terms of climate, political systems, demography, infrastructure, history, languages, legal systems, land and water resources etc. etc.
POLAR 2018, June 15-27, 2018 (Davos, Switzerland).
POLAR2018 is a joint event from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). The SCAR meetings, the ASSW and the Open Science Conference will be hosted by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL under the patronage of the Swiss Committee on Polar and High Altitude Research. The WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF is organizing POLAR2018.
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