SEATTLE — The Coast Guard has postponed plans to scrap the Seattle-based icebreaker Polar Sea this year.
Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Robert Papp made the decision Thursday after meeting with Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington and Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the senators said Friday.
“The Polar Sea’s hull is still in sound condition,” Cantwell said. “Postponing its scrapping allows the administration and Congress more time to consider all options for fulfilling the nation’s critical icebreaking missions.”
The United States needs more icebreakers in the Arctic, the Alaska senators said.
“While this may only be a six-month respite for the Polar Sea, I will use this period to work through my role on the Appropriations Committee to make America’s icebreaking capacity a top priority,” Murkowski said.
The 399-foot Polar Sea is 35 years old and has been out of service since an engine failure in 2010. It had been scheduled to be dry-docked Monday for the first steps in demolition.
Its 36-year-old sister ship, the Polar Star, has been on caretaker status since 2006 and undergoing a $57 million upgrade. The rehabbed Polar Star is expected to return to service next year.
The United States currently has only one working icebreaker, the Healy. It was used last winter to escort a Russian tanker to Nome to make an emergency delivery after a fuel barge failed to arrive before the Bering Sea froze.
The Healy is a medium-duty icebreaker designed to crush ice about 5 feet thick. The Polar Sea is designed to break through ice up to 21 feet thick.
One Coast Guard study said the agency and the Navy need six heavy duty icebreakers and four medium icebreakers, the senators said. The reduction in Arctic ice has created more opportunities for Northwest Passage trade, fishing and oil exploration, as well as more environmental and security concerns. The icebreakers also travel to Antarctica to resupply McMurdo Station.
The hull is the costliest part of an icebreaker to build, said Brian Baird, a former Washington congressman who is now vice president of Vigor Industrial, formerly Todd Shipyards, which repairs the icebreakers. Building a new icebreaker could take 10 years and cost more than $800 million, Baird told The Seattle Times.
Comments (6)
Add commentIcebreakers
The USS/USCGC GLACIER AGB-4 the only remaining heavy duty icebreaker is slated for scrap as well. This is a welcome sign as Miami Mayor Regalado has invited the Glacier to berth at the "Notch" in Miami as an Environmental Science & Youth Museum. Visit www.glaciersociety to see photos of the berth, a brand new facility seeking an historic ship. Senators Begich, Lieberman, Rubio, and many members of Congress have voiced support for saving the Glacier as a tribute to all the revolutionary science that took place from her decks.
Basing the Glacier in South Florida will support the Nations Mission for Icebreakers as South Florida is the world capital for shipping and cruising operators.
It is time to support the GLACIER!
Ben Koether
Glacier Society
www.savetheglacier.org
POLAR SEA
HA!! IF Murkowski and Begich are involved, someone that financed their shady elections stands to make a boatload (sorry) of cash off the delay. Someone should investigate which companies stand to gain from a rebuild project for the Polar Sea and how much those companies donated to these wretched politicians. This is payback to a shipbuilder for services rendered. Not much different from Murkowski paying Sealaska back for financing her illegal election campaign by giving the best Tongass timberlands to Sealaska, which will cause numerous small communities to be destroyed when Sealaska rapes that land too. Go to You Tube and watch HOONAH LEGACY and see if you don't agree.
What does this have to do with the Polar Sea? One: More slick behavior by Murkowski and fellow criminals, Two, I was on the first crew of WAGB-11, and I live in a tiny coastal community that depends on the fish, timber, roads, deer, and berries that grow on our island.
Sealaska picked the final lands they wanted years ago and if Murkowski was honest, she would have already finalized that land transfer. This is cherry picking.
The taxpayer is going to get a good screwing out of this since they paid for hundreds of millions in roads and timber management that will be handed over to Sealaska.
The "Good Ol' Boy" system is firmly in place in Alaska.
Brain activity...
...needs jostled sometimes. This is a welcome story. We don't need to get left behind in the Arctic. Both icebreakers should be fitted with nuclear reactors.
Icebreaker nukes
Problem with that plan is that, by treaty, nukes are prohibited from the Antarctic. We wouldn't be able to use it to support McMurdo.
Slowly and a BIG surely!
Whats goin on is the proverbial buying of the state, once the state began playing the Washington BS game of let us in and we'll be good. But, the refitting of an icebreaker as a political tool? Why the hell not? It's a buck and they weren't voted in to be on the coherent/frugal/public side of things...........no wait a minute! Hmmm, maybe I'll run next year! Seems like easy money! Just need to leave the promised public conscience at the door!
Sad to see the once mighty US
Sad to see the once mighty US icebreaking fleet reduced to one or maybe... two ships. Once we dominated the polar regions with the Wind-class ships (all scrapped) and the USS/USCGC Glacier(future dark.)
Now we lease Russian and Swedish breakers to support our Antarctic operations.
And it is sad to see Alaska's indifference to its proud maritime heritage, behaving more like a 3rd World country or colony. There appears no interest in hosting either the Glacier or Polar Sea as floating museum ships. Even efforts to retrieve the retired modest-sized USCGC Storis as Alaska's first saltwater museum ship seem stymied.
Hon. Steven W Lindsey
state rep
Keene, NH
(And former sailor aboard the USCGCs Westwind, Northwind, and Polar Sea.)