Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship navigates through floating ice in the Arctic Ocean in September. Photograph: Natalie Thomas/Reuters

By Emily Holden • November 13, 2020

Couple finds areas that once required ice-breaking ship have become open water

When the Arctic researchers Jacqueline Grebmeier and Lee Cooper made their annual scientific pilgrimage to frigid seas off Alaska last month, what they found was startling.

Areas that were previously accessible at that time of the year only with an ice-breaking ship had become open, wavy water.

“We packed our long underwear, and we never put it on,” Cooper said.

Lee Cooper and Jackie Grebmeier with their daughter Ruth. Photograph: Lee Ruth Cooper

In years past, the pair could convince wary volunteers to accompany them by promising walrus sightings. But with no sea ice to perch on and fewer clams to eat, the tusked butterballs have moved to more comfortable accommodations on the beaches.

Instead, the research team saw huge fishing boats searching farther north for Pacific cod, and a container ship traveling a newly melted route from Quebec to Korea. It snowed only once during their three weeks on the water.

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