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Breaking the Ice

January 30, 2017

When the WHOI-operated research vessel R/V Atlantis (right) docked in Manzanillo, Mexico, at the end of December, to prepare for its current cruise to explore the Pito Deep, it was met by another UNOLS ship, R/V Sikuliaq operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Sikuliaq (see-KOO-lee-auk), which means “young sea ice” or “young sea ice that is safe to walk on” in Inupiaq, is capable of operating in seasonal sea ice. In 2014, it stopped at WHOI on its way from the shipyard in Marietta, Wisconsin, where it was built, to its home port in Seward, Alaska. (Photo by Lisa Borden, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)