WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Angus King, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Susan Collins today announced that the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay will receive an $82,159 grant from the National Science Foundation to support future Arctic research. The grant will fund travel for fifteen U.S. researchers to meet with Swedish peers to discuss potential joint research aboard the Stockholm-based icebreaker Oden.

“As our climate changes, it is increasingly important for U.S. researchers to have the means to survey the full effects of these trends on the Arctic region,” Senators King and Collins said. “We are hopeful that this grant will lead to U.S.-led research in the Eastern Arctic in order to build our nation’s understanding of how shifts in the region’s climate will impact our economy, our ecosystems, and our national defense.”

The researchers will produce a report for the Arctic research community on the types of projects regular access to the Oden would enable. Use of the Oden would be important for providing U.S. researchers with a means to reach the Eastern Artic, as comparable U.S. icebreakers are home-ported in Seattle, WA.

Last March, Senator King traveled to the Arctic with U.S. defense officials where he observed and participated in a Navy training exercise known as Ice Exercise (ICEX) to gain a deeper understanding of U.S. military operations in the region and the Arctic’s strategic value to the United States.

Senator Collins has also traveled to the Arctic and was briefed by scientists involved in the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), which was a multi-year assessment to evaluate the impact of climate change and increased ultraviolet radiation across the Arctic region. 

The Arctic Ocean is of increasing strategic importance to the United States. Not only does it border several nations, including the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway, and Denmark, but it also serves as an increasingly important waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, particularly as the accelerating melting of Arctic ice creates the potential to open up global shipping routes, new energy sources, and other commercial interests.

The President signed an Executive Order on January 21^st that establishes an Arctic Executive Steering Committee aimed at coordinating Arctic policy across different federal government agencies and Senator King has committed to working with the Administration as the U.S. takes up the Chairmanship of the Arctic Council later this year.

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