You will no doubt be astonished to learn that shark jumping supremo Tony Heller has just jumped over the entire East Greenland population of this long lived but officially vulnerable species. Without harming a single one!
Over on XTwitter “Steve”/Tony was recently shown this video which graphically reveals the declining age of the sea ice in the Arctic Ocean:
Sixty years ago this week, the USS Skate surfaced at the North Pole. Arctic sea ice was two meters thick.
using these images as “evidence”:
Please note that according to the July 1959 issue of National Geographic magazine:
The winter sun still hid below the horizon last March 17 when USS Skate crunched up through the ice at 90° N – first ship in history ever to surface at the Pole.
Note also that when USS Skate surfaced at the North Pole on March 17th 1959 she was alone. There was no polynya to be seen, let alone a second submarine in one.
What do you suppose the odds are that Tony’s “No Change In Arctic Sea Ice Over The Past 60 Years” assertion is equally aberrant?
[Edit – August 18th]
A reader on Twitter, apparently a fan of Mr. Heller asks:
So, is there any change in Article sea Ice over the last 60 yrs, which was the title of the post?
Of course there is! According to Commander James Calvert in the May 1959 edition of LIFE magazine:
On March 17 we arrived in the vicinity of the geographic North Pole. We had a job we very much wanted to do here, but as we cruised back and forth in the darkness below the Pole it seemed doubtful that we would be able to perform the last service requested by Sir Hubert Wilkins. No frozen leads or polynyas appeared. For a time I thought it would be necessary to conduct the service while submerged and discharge the ashes from one of the torpedo tubes as we passed under the pole.
Then suddenly we spotted the faint light of a small lead and we started up. This was our toughest surfacing so far. The quarters were cramped and we had to take special care not to hit Skate’s delicate rudder against the walls of ice. It took us two hours of careful maneuvering before Skate’s sail buckled the ice at the precise top of the world.
Climbing to the bridge I was greeted by an awesome sight. Skate was in a small lead completely surrounded by 10-foot-high hummocks of ice. This was the most inhospitable terrain we had seen so far.
[Edit – October 18th 2019]
The Skate and Seadragon surfacing at the North Pole meme has just been resurrected by David Middleton at “Watts Up With That”. He asserts that:
The North Pole may not have been totally ice free in 1962, but there clearly was a lot of open water…
USS SKATE (SSN 578), CDR Joseph L. Skoog (Dr. W.K. Lyon and Richard Boyle), and USS SEADRAGON (SSN 584), CDR Charles D. Summitt, (Walter Wittman) conducted the first rendezvous of 2 ships at the North Pole.
Unfortunately for Mr. Middleton, Commander Summitt wrote a book about his experiences, the relevant section of which reads as follows:
When we were a couple of miles from the pole, we started watching for a large enough polynya to hold both of us. However, we reached the pole without either of us having any luck.
In certain quarters it is being claimed in slightly strange English that:
The British Navy takes part in ICEX exercises that take place every two years and last for several weeks. Royal Navy submarine HMS Trenchant broke through the Arctic ice about seven days ago to join two US submarines for the exercise. At the same time, US submarines Hartford and Connecticut were stuck in the Arctic ice as they were training an attack on Russia. According to the legend of the exercises, the US submarines were supposed to surface and strike conditional targets in Russia, but the thick ice prevented them from fulfilling the scenario of the exercise.
Royal Navy submarine HMS Trenchant has broken through the metre-thick ice of the Arctic Ocean to join two US boats on major exercise.
Ice Exercise 18 (ICEX) is a series of demanding trials in the frigid climate of the Arctic Circle, designed to test submariners’ skills in operating under the Arctic ice cap.
HMS Trenchant joins US submarines USS Connecticut and USS Hartford for the drills, co-ordinated by the US Navy’s Arctic Submarine Laboratory.
This combined team of military staff and scientists run the testing schedule from an ice camp established on an ice floe in the Arctic Ocean, north of Alaska.
Here is a video recording of HMS Trenchant getting “stuck in the Arctic ice”:
https://youtu.be/3EF3_plp8NQ
Here are some US Navy videos that reveal exactly how USS Connecticut and USS Hartford also became “stuck in the Arctic ice”:
Ice Camp Skate is a temporary ice camp that was established on a sheet of ice in the Arctic Ocean, known as an ice floe. Skate will serve as a temporary command center for conducting submarine operations, including under-ice navigation and torpedo exercises. The camp consists of shelters, a command center, and infrastructure to safely house and support more than 50 personnel at any one time.
The camp gets its namesake from USS Skate, the first submarine to surface through open water surrounded by ice in 1958, and the first submarine to surface through the Arctic ice at the North Pole in March 1959. Since the success of Skate’s surfacing, Arctic operations have been a crucial part of the missions conducted by nuclear submarines.
For more than 70 years, submarines have conducted under-ice operations in the Arctic regions in support of interfleet transit, training, cooperative allied engagements and routine operations.
The U.S. submarine force has completed more than 27 Arctic exercises.
[Edit – April 10th]
NASA’s Operation IceBridge have released some images of the now abandoned ICEX 2018 site on their Facebook page. They include a damaged and apparently abandoned Twin Otter aircraft:
As part of the build up to the 2015 Great White Con Arctic Basin Big Wave (Fantasy?) Surfing Contest (GWCABBWFSC for short) we’ve been researching previous Arctic Basin water sports events. You can only imagine our shock and delight when we discovered deep in the depths of the NSIDC’s “Top Secret” archives some never before seen video footage of the USS Skate surfacing “near the North Pole” in the summer of 1958. Even more astonishing than that was the moving pictures of Norbert Untersteiner being towed at high speed behind a powered water craft in the very same lead that SSN-578 had used to reach fresh air and sunshine. Firstly feast your eyes on this:
Now take a look at how 21st century big wave surfers tow into the waves created by calving glaciers:
USS Skate (SSN-578) made submarine history on 11 August 1958 when it became the first submarine to surface at the North Pole
Us:
It would seem to be the USS Skate on 11 August 1958 when it became the first submarine to surface at the North Pole. What is this picture of?
NASA Worldview “true-color” image of the North Pole area on September 2nd 2013, derived from bands 1, 4 and 3 of the MODIS sensor on the Terra satellite
Them:
Frozen ice. What is my prize?
And basically yours is just a snipe hunt. Mine disproves your hysteria.
Us:
No prize I’m afraid. The correct answer is vast areas of open ocean. Plenty of room for every submarine on the planet.
Them:
Sorry, there is no open water. Check your picture again. So you are reneging? Typical.
Us:
I have checked again, and I still see lots of open water underneath a thin veil of cloud. Perhaps you should arrange a hasty visit to an optician? Luckily microwaves can see through clouds, even if you cannot. Here’s another satellite image of the North Pole area from September 2nd 2013, this time a University of Hamburg visualisation of data from the AMSR2 sensor on board the Japanese SHIZUKU satellite.
AMSR2 image of the North Pole area on September 2nd 2013
You have X-ray vision? I am sorry! I did not realize you were stuper girl! Want to try again? This time with normal vision.
BTW. for the SLOOOOOW learners. 85 North +/= North pole. The North Pole is WITHIN 85 North. But it is NOT 85 North.
The Skate is at 90 North. The NORTH POLE.
You may have x-ray vision, but you still cannot read a map. neither picture shows open water AT the north pole.
How many submarines are on the planet Snowy? better recheck your figures. They are not tinker toys.
Us:
You’re a hard man to please Phil! Feast your eyes on this picture instead then:
NASA Worldview “true-color” image of the North Pole area on August 28th 2013, derived from bands 1, 4 and 3 of the MODIS sensor on the Aqua satellite
Them:
We’ll keep you posted!
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