Polar Kit

[Margorie Gomoran]

For polar scientists, these principles define the important concepts to convey when communicating the broader impacts of their research. For educators, these principles provide guidance on significant concepts to teach about the Polar Regions.

For more, check out this interview by Ari Daniel (Senior Digital Media Producer at NOVA) with Dr. Joel Barker at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, The Ohio State University. -ice.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/polarPRINCEv3mix.mp3

I just got a new phone, not sure if this is the cause, but suddenly Strava and polar are not syncing anymore. I've uninstalled Strava, installed it again, restarted my phone and refreshed Strava. Still not syncing. What do I need to do?

As of 6-20-24, Strava seems to not be uploading polar calorie estimates. I've checked to make sure my weight was entered on both platforms. Reconnected the data sharing agreements on both apps, but when I upload to strava now, it won't carry over the calorie burn. Not a huge deal, but I just don't want to do it myself manually for every workout I save. Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks for posting about this and sorry to hear of the issue. The first thing I recommend is check to ensure you're signed into your original Strava account on your new phone. If you accidentally created a new Strava account on your new phone, you won't see your activities syncing into it.

To do this, sign out of Strava on the phone and sign back in, being sure to use the original email address and password you used when you set up your account. If you know the email address but not the password, you can reset it.

The operational polar fleet currently includes one 399-foot heavy icebreaker (Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, commissioned in 1976) and one 420-foot medium icebreaker (Coast Guard Cutter Healy, commissioned in 2000). These cutters are designed for open-water icebreaking and feature reinforced hulls and specially angled bows.

The Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, through an integrated program office, on April 23, 2019, awarded VT Halter Marine Inc., of Pascagoula, Mississippi, a fixed price incentive (firm) contract for the detail, design and construction of the lead PSC. Construction on the first PSC is planned to begin in 2022 with contract delivery planned for 2025. The contract includes financial incentives for earlier delivery.

Over the course of less than half a year, I have been contacted by three persons, completely independently of each other, who have asked me what I thought of three different, apparently unrelated situations. On closer scrutiny, they are perhaps not so unrelated after all. Maybe they are part of a trend? Walking among polar bears! I feel a strong need to bring this issue to the attention of as many as possible. Before it escalates, and before we see serious accidents. Maybe I should say before we see even more serious accidents.

Around the same time, another friend and colleague asked me my opinion on the various doings of the guides in the video here: -weve-been/svalbard/. Not least the images and text bragging about being able to walk on foot up to within 50 meters on polar bears had caught his attention, and they certainly caught mine as well. These scenes are from Svalbard. We see an armed guide, with a rifle over his shoulder and a group of tourists on tow, sneaking up across fjord ice towards a polar bear family at a kill. Later he is sitting on the ice with the rifle laid out in front of him, the photographers spread out alongside him.

Now, in January 2019, another colleague asked me what I think of the activities described here: -bear-safari/ **. This company not only directly talks about walking among polar bears, but they also amply illustrate that with photographs, showing groups of photographers walking by or standing next to polar bears, armed guides among them. In some of the images, the scenario is slightly different: The tourists are behind a fence, and the bear walks by immediately outside, merely meters away.

It is rather obvious that carrying lethal weaponry leads to carelessness, less respect, and accidents. The risks that guides would take would be drastically different if they were not carrying guns. We would immediately see a lot more respectful and humble behaviour and approach in polar bear country, if the main risk lay on the human side and not the animal side. The obvious step is to implement everywhere a methodology of guiding in polar bear country without carrying lethal weaponry. The change from a gun- based security philosophy to a non-lethal one is slow to manifest, but it is happening. A powerful, efficient, elaborate and professional non-lethal safety technology for meetings between humans and polar bears already exists. Dr. Nikita Ovsyanikov has developed a methodology which has been taught widely to professionals all over the Arctic for years. Its implementation must continue and must spread.

Bear Smart programs ensure people and bears safely and respectfully coexist. We are working to create a paradigm shift in people's attitudes toward bears and other wildlife by replacing fear and misunderstanding with respect and understanding.

The APL-UW SEED (Science & Engineering Enrichment and Development) Postdoctoral Scholar Program welcomes proposals for independently designed and led novel research projects. SEED scholars will be mentored by and collaborate with APL-UW researchers and Polar Science is one of the possible research areas included. Follow the link for more information!

In July 2023, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) partnered with the 144th Airlift Squadron of the Alaska Air National Guard to deploy five different types of weather buoys across more than 1,000 nautical miles of the Arctic Ocean. Such deployments are critical for maintaining the Arctic Observing Network (AON), which provides observations for weather and ice forecasting and related research.

Polar Science Center Chair Dr. Bonnie Light joined a group of international scientists in Bremerhaven, Germany in January 2023 to process and analyze sea ice core samples brought back from the 2019-2020 MOSAiC expedition. Photo Credit: Amy Lauren

A new population of polar bears documented on the southeast coast of Greenland use glacier ice to survive despite limited access to sea ice. This small, genetically distinct group of polar bears could be important to the future of the species in a warming world.

The APL family lost a dear friend and a key figure in our success in polar oceanography when Andy Heiberg passed away at home with his family on February 17, 2021 after short struggle with pancreatic cancer.

When doing research in the Arctic the elements are big challenge not just for the humans working there but also for the instruments used to collect data. Ignatius Rigor has set up a testing site outside of Barrow, Alaska to monitor an array of instruments and test their reliability and accuracy. Watch the video to learn more about the project.

This new data set is a concerted effort to collect as many observations of sea ice thickness as possible in one place with consistent formats and with clear and abundant documentation. It will allow the community to better utilize what is now a considerable body of observations from moorings, submarines, aircraft, and satellites.

A portion of all proceeds are donated to Polar Bears International, who specializes in polar bear research and works to protect wild polar bears. Your purchase will help their conservation, and secure a future for polar bears in a rapidly changing world.

The collars have a release mechanism with an internal clock that researchers can program. Researchers usually set the timer so that the collar will fall off shortly before the batteries are drained and the collar is no longer transmitting. Also, the collars are attached with steel nuts and brass bolts that eventually corrode in a saltwater environment, causing the collar to fall off even if the release mechanism fails. Once they fall off, a GPS location allows researchers to find the collar (if in a retrievable spot), download any stored data, refurbish, and send it out again.

Understandably, there are concerns about the impacts of collaring and human interference on wildlife. Polar bear researchers care deeply about the health of their study animals and regularly assess the impacts of different types of research and adjust as needed.

The most recent study on the long-term impacts of collars on polar bears evaluated the extent to which capture, collaring, and handling may influence polar bear activity, body mass, body condition, reproduction, and survival. Polar bears had a reduction in movements for several days after capture, but this was short-term. There were no long-term effects found on body condition, reproduction, or cub survival. This study showed capture and collaring are not contributing to observed changes in body condition, reproduction or survival seen in the polar bear population.

While people tend to think that polar bears are violent or threatening to humans, they are generally solitary creatures, who only approach human settlements if hungry or curious and usually only lash out if they feel threatened or afraid.

Though they are generally considered to be fairly calm, it is important to remember that polar bears are a large predator and can be unpredictable. When in polar bear country, practicing bear safety is critically important and one should never approach a polar bear for any reason.

Polar bears are not easily frightened. While they do not have any natural enemies or predators, most polar bears will choose to avoid large adult male polar bears as they can be unpredictable and dangerous depending on the time of year and conditions. Polar bears may also avoid humans who can serve as a threat in certain scenarios.

While polar bears appear white, their skin and the surface of their paws are actually black. The soles of their paws are special in the way that they are covered in papillae. These tiny bumps create friction to allow for stability and slip protection when polar bears walk on ice.

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