IceBridge Overflies Norwegian Camp on Drifting Sea Ice.

Caribou Restrictions to Take Effect This Summer. It's been 30 decades since hunting restrictions have been placed on Arctic caribou herds, but with dropping numbers in both the Western Arctic and Teshekpuk herds, the Alaska Board of Game had no other option. Restrictions on bag limits and season length will start on July 1, and will affect both resident and non-resident hunters. The decision to impose the limits, and which restrictions to implement, was a collaborative decision between government bodies and local advisory groups that are made up of hunters and other stakeholders in the herds. The Arctic Sounder

Oil Council: Shale Won't Last, Arctic Drilling Needed Now. The U.S. should immediately begin a push to exploit its enormous trove of oil in the Arctic waters off of Alaska, or risk a renewed reliance on imported oil in the future, an Energy Department advisory council says in a study to be released Friday. The U.S. has drastically cut imports and transformed itself into the world's biggest producer of oil and natural gas by tapping huge reserves in shale rock formations. But the government predicts that the shale boom won't last much beyond the next decade. ABC News

Research Vessel Arrives in Unalaska on Maiden Voyage. "Alaska's boat," the research vessel Sikuliaq, on its maiden voyage from a Midwest shipyard to the northern Bering Sea ice, visited last week for talks by scientists at the museum and tours of the ship by local residents at the Unalaska Marine Center. The state-of-the-art 261-foot blue ship had traveled 30,000 miles from Marinette, Wisc., through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, down the East Coast, through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific to Guam, and then to Alaska, with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, and homeport Seward, and on to the Aleutian Islands port of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor. The Bristol Bay Times

Amateur Astronomer in Northern Manitoba Part of $200 Million NASA Mission. An amateur astronomer from The Pas is part of a huge 13-year $200 million NASA project to study the aurora borealis across the Arctic, from Greenland to Alaska. He is Delwin Shand, the caretaker of the THEMIS mission's ground-based observatory (GBO) in The Pas which works 365 days a year. "It's a camera system," Shand said. "The University of Calgary's astronomy and astrophysics department, in junction with NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the University of California at Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory are participating in a joint project. I look after their camera system and computer that controls it." Thompson Citizen

Mental Health Issues Rampant Among Saami Reindeer Herders: CMWS Presenter. Being a reindeer herder in Scandinavia may sounds like a romantic life, but a presenter on the second day of the Circumpolar Mental Wellness Symposium told delegates that the Saami people are struggling just to keep the tradition alive. According to Per Jonas Partapuoli, who is with the Saami Youth Association, traditional reindeer-grazing land has been taken by the state for resource development or sustainable energy projects, such as wind farms, with no consultation with the Saami. CBC News