Each year, the crew maneuvers the nearly 400-foot, 13,000-ton icebreaker to cut a channel to McMurdo Station, the U.S. Antarctic Program’s logistics hub.
Bering Strait regional nonprofit Kawerak has published a language glossary that provides research, science, policy and resource management terms in English, Inupiaq, St. Lawrence Island Yupik and Yup’ik.
The seven-day festival is an effort to bring together residents of the high north from both sides of the strait, some of whom are relatives, and to honor their shared culture.
The state won 10-year oil leases for nine pieces of land by submitting the minimum offer: $25 an acre. But drilling for oil in the refuge is expensive, and it faces an aggressive opposition campaign.