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Fire and Ice

March 5, 2012

The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy operates in the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans from late spring until early winter, helping scientists carry out research in the far north. It is rated to operate in temperatures as low as -50 degrees Farhenheit, but the ship’s boilers (one shown here) keep the science party and crew warm while Healy pushes its way through ice up to eight feet thick. The ship recently took a team led by WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian into the Bering and Chukchi Seas to conduct the first wintertime surveys of life in the waters there.(Photo by Donglai Gong, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)