11 September 2004	Saturday	25 Rajab 1425

ABOARD THE PROFESSOR KHROMOV: The ship crawled through the fog as if on a slow tour of frozen ruins, trying to avoid ice chunks of every size and shape off Russia's far northeastern coast.

The latest charts showed clear sailing in the north Chukchi Sea, where scientists aboard the Russian science vessel Professor Khromov prepared to take dozens of water samples as part of research to gauge the effects of global warming on the little-studied area.

But the ice was there regardless of what the charts showed. It was late summer and time for the joint US-Russian Arctic expedition was running short. Occasionally, the Khromov, a 213-foot, Soviet-era ship, rammed a big floe, jarring all aboard.

"Without a helicopter to give you close ice observations, you have to trust your instincts and hope for a bit of luck," said Terry Whitledge, science chief for the mission.

This was the northern leg of a voyage that began in Nome, Alaska, 10 days before, aiming to travel 6,000 kilometres and reach latitudes far above the Arctic Circle. The vessel, with 36 scientists and 28 crew, zigzagged across the US-Russian border line, passing rocky coastlines, native villages, humpback whales, polar bears and puffins.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Russian Academy of Sciences gathered biologists, physicists and chemists for the 16-day study of the sole gateway for Pacific water flowing to the Arctic. There have been other joint voyages, but none with such a diverse field of experts.

Scientists hope to glean a better understanding of the rising temperatures and warming currents that are believed to be causing the polar ice cover to shrink. Recent NASA-funded studies of satellite pictures have shown year-round Arctic sea ice is melting at nearly 10 per cent a decade.

"POLITICAL MORASS": First the Cold War, then government resistance to joint studies, had stymied scientists' efforts to assemble a solid picture of the important ecosystem that straddles the US-Russian border line.

"Exploration of this area has been caught in a political morass," said Kathleen Crane, NOAA's expedition coordinator. "One of the goals is to gather benchmark information about marine life. It's just basic oceanography."

The expedition is named RUSALCA, or Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic, a word that means "mermaid" in Russian. After a year of preparation, scientists planned 118 stops to sample zooplankton, fish, crustaceans and water. But now, Whitledge, a University of Alaska chemical and biological oceanographer and veteran of more than 100 expeditions, had to rejig his plans on the fly. Ice slowed the Khromov in some places and prevented work in others. The ship was due back in Nome, more than 40 hours sailing away, in six days.

The team knew the risks. Just south of here in the 1930s, 111 people aboard another science vessel, the Chelyuskin, were evacuated after the ship was hemmed in by ice. It later sank.

GRUELLING PACE: Already, Whitledge, 61, was blindsided by a storm that delayed the start, then by bureaucratic wrangling with Russia's defence ministry over a US mooring in Russian waters, costing him two days of a cruise he saw as short to begin with.

In cold drizzle or under the midnight sun, University of Alaska researchers Katrin Iken and Bodil Bluhm painstakingly measured and weighed thousands of starfish, crabs and other sea life.

It was crucial to make use of the rare opportunity, Iken said. "It's not just what we live from - it's what we live for," the 39-year-old said over a bowl of borscht, one of many during the trip. -Reuters