Anchorage Daily News

BARROW -- It's not that easy for hundreds of outsiders to suddenly sneak up on Barrow, considering how the northernmost town in the United States has neither a port nor a road to help them get here. Newcomers pretty much have to arrive on a big noisy plane.

Which is why nearly everyone in this historic Inupiat community was surprised last fall when they woke up to find about 400 German tourists walking around town. How the heck did they get here?

The answer?

They sailed from Europe to Barrow the short way -- via the suddenly ice-free Canadian Arctic -- after the fabled Northwest Passage opened completely last summer for the first time in recorded history.

"Yes, that was a surprise," North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta said Thursday, standing on the Barrow airport tarmac.

But not just for the townspeople. Commanders with the U.S. Coast Guard stationed far to the south in Juneau and Kodiak were surprised as well.

"They said, 'What Germans? What cruise ships?' " Itta recalled with a laugh. "And I said, 'They're here.' "

Nowadays, the Coast Guard is here too -- responding to mounting evidence that the Arctic is becoming more navigable each summer by extending regular patrols into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas for the first time ever.

For now, it's still an experimental effort, Rear Adm. Gene Brooks, the commander of Coast Guard operations in Alaska, the North Pacific and the Arctic, said to members of the media -- who'd just stepped off a Coast Guard C-130 cargo transport plane in Barrow to observe the new effort firsthand.

The mission right now is to secure the coast, assist in rescue operations, inspect evidence of coastal erosion due to climate change -- like the devastation at Kivalina -- and track the ice pack, Brooks said.

Assisting in that effort are occasional trips by the C-130 crew, based in Kodiak, and the USCG Cutter Healy, a relatively small ice-breaker, which can interrupt its Arctic research for the National Science Foundation to respond to emergencies.

Two smaller boats are also patrolling the Arctic coast, Brooks said. And about 36 Coast Guard personnel are temporarily stationed in Barrow, including two helicopter crews.

Will a base there become permanent? It could if the Arctic ice pack continues to retreat and more foreign vessels pay surprise visits on Barrow, Brooks said -- recalling the words of his boss, Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

"He said, 'You know, I'm agnostic on the science, and I'm agnostic on the politics. All I know is there is more water up here than ever. And I have to provide marine safety and marine security to that water.' "

"Welcome to the top of the world," Itta said, beaming.

APPRECIATION IN THE NORTH

Later, the mayor noted that Coast Guard assistance in search and rescue operations in the Arctic will be thoroughly appreciated. Until now, the North Slope Borough could only count on itself when someone went missing north of the Brooks Range.

"We're it," Itta said, "and we only have one helicopter crew."

That's begun to change.

In just the last week, Coast Guard crews were called in to assist in two emergencies -- first when a 13-year-old boy dove into stormy waters in the Beaufort Sea near Kaktovik in an effort to save his dad, who'd fallen overboard. Both father and son disappeared. The Coast Guard searched for the pair for three days, until their bodies were eventually recovered.

The Coast Guard received a second call mid-week when three seismic vessels under contract to an oil company got stuck in the shifting ice pack about 50 miles northwest of Barrow. The Healy was on its way, but the wind shifted again and the vessels were able to free themselves.

More incidents like those are probably inevitable, Itta said. And more visits by foreign eco-tourist groups from Europe and Canada are expected too, considering the Northwest Passage is due to open again this month.

"We need traffic cops here for our oceans," Itta said. "And we're looking at them now -- the Coast Guard. We welcome their presence."

Find George Bryson online at adn.com/contact/gbryson or call 257-4318.

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