Icebreaker Hindered – By Ice
The icebreaker CCGS Amundsen had to divert from its scheduled research expedition in order to conduct SAR operations in Hudson Bay. (Photo: Tatiana Pichugina/Wikimedia Commons)
The icebreaker CCGS Amundsen carrying about 40 scientists has had to abandon its research expedition through Hudson Bay, Canada due to unusually thick ice.
The icebreaker CCGS Amundsen carrying about 40 scientists has had to abandon its research expedition through Hudson Bay, Canada due to unusually thick ice.
According to CBC, the ice conditions in Hudson Bay this year are too treacherous for even an icebreaker to navigate. Dense ice has travelled to Hudson Bay from the High Arctic, an area where there normally would be little or no ice left at this time of year.
40 scientists were scheduled to use the icebreaker for the first leg of a 133-day expedition across the Arctic, a journey that is part of a four-year, £17-million project lead by the University of Manitoba. However, the icebreaker had to be diverted for search-and-rescue purposes due to numerous boats being surprised by the thick ice amassing.
- What happens in the Arctic does not stay here. It comes south. We are simply ill-prepared, leader of the research expedition that began on 25th of May in Quebec City, David Barber, says to CBC. Barber is a climate change scientist at the University of Manitoba and leader of the BaySys Hudson Bay expedition.