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Into the wide blue yonder

April 15, 2009

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy steams north out of Dutch Harbor, a port in the Aleutian Islands of southwestern Alaska, heading toward the ice of the Bering Sea. The ship—the Coast Guard’s largest and newest icebreaker—is carrying 40 scientists, including WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian, to the frozen ocean to learn about sea ice and how climate change could be affecting the Bering Sea ecosystem. Their expedition is being chronicled on the Polar Discovery Web site. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)