Icebreaker docked in Seattle to be refitted for duty

The Coast Guard's top brass landed in Seattle on Wednesday to announce the refitting of an old icebreaker, along with the need to act in the face of global climate change.

Standing on the deck of the cutter Polar Star at the U.S. Coast Guard base on Pier 36, Adm. Thad Allen described the ship's $62 million facelift as well as what he said was "a clarion call for action regarding ocean policy, regarding climate change and regarding what's going on in our Arctic."

Commissioned in 1976, the 399-foot Polar Star has been on ice, as it were — that is, docked in "caretaker status" to save money — since its last mission in 2006. In 1982 it circumnavigated Antarctica, the first ship to do so since 1843. It's one of only three U.S. icebreakers — all based in Seattle — and all three are necessary to patrol Alaska's Arctic coastline, do research in the Arctic and Antarctic and deal with emergencies, according to the National Research Council.

Allen said the overhaul will start at Seattle's Todd Shipyards within the next several weeks and result in 250 new local jobs. After being rebuilt from the inside out, the ship will be back at sea in 2013 and used until about 2020.

Why not just build a new one? Allen said they're just "trying to stabilize the fleet" now and there won't be any new icebreakers until there's been a discussion "about the future of the Arctic, the Antarctic and what kind of presence we want, and the future of icebreakers." The cost for a new icebreaker has been estimated at $750 million or more.

Over the past 3 ½ years, Allen said, the Arctic has become "more ice-diminished every year in the summer." And that's changing how the Coast Guard looks at the region.

"For a long time, all we did in the Arctic was science," he said.

But now with more open water, there is increased viability for ecotourism and shipping.

And "the fact that 22 percent of the world's oil and gas reserves are in the arctic region — this has become an area of extreme focus."

Asked if the Coast Guard is operating on the premise that climate change is a certainty, Allen said, "Well, you know I'm not a scientist, I'm a sailor. And the most PC way for me to say this is I'm agnostic to the science. There's water where there didn't use to be and I'm responsible for it.

"Certain things are undeniable. The Arctic ice cap is shrinking. The parameters of our oceans are changing. Temperature is changing. Salinity is changing. We have carbon dioxide that's entering the water column right now making carbonic acid that has a significant impact on shellfish and the food chain. These are all undeniable."

Mark Rahner: 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com