Live from the Bering Sea
02.04.2009 - Water & Oceans, Flora & Fauna, Human Dimension, Other, Arctic
Beginning April 4th, students, teachers, museum visitors and virtual explorers can follow a multi-institutional team of researchers led by Carin Ashjian of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, USA on a 38-day expedition in the Arctic's Bering Sea.
Through interactive sessions at museums and daily dispatches, videos, photo essays, WHOI's Polar Discovery Website and even Twitter, visitors will be able to follow scientists aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy and interact with them daily as they discover more about how the changing climate may be affecting the Bering Sea region's vital, enormously productive yet delicate ecosystem.
Teeming with fish and crab, the region is so productive due to a particular combination of melting sea ice and currents. This combination helps transport nutrients that fee algae blooms, which form the basis of the food chain in the region.
