WWF's work in the Arctic, around the pole.

Finally – a banner morning: clear, nearly calm, and should reach +5F by this afternoon. The team was joined by a second small helicopter late last night that will act as a spotter and may also haul extra fuel later in the season when the sea ice become too broken for the fixed wing to land. We meet at 8 AM for our briefing and plan to launch around half past ten. We will also have our fixed wing spotter/fuel plane today, so pilot coordination will be important.

When you think of arctic wildlife, threatened ecosystems and climate change, the first thing that springs to mind for many people are polar bears. While polar bears are beautiful creatures, copepods are the stars of Dr Ceri Lewis’s research and for good reason: changes in their numbers could have drastic knock-on effects on the health of the marine ecosystem.

Karyn, Michelle and I ready the gear and load up the helicopter. We’ll head northwest today and cover some new habitat to the southwest of Point Hope. The village of Point Hope is one of the oldest Inupiat sites in Alaska and is still a largely traditional village to this day. As such they live close to the land and the sea, relying on wildlife for healthy and affordable protein- including fish, caribou, seals, whale, and polar bear. Spring however is the time where focus turns to one single and very important species- the Bowhead whale.

Fourteen years. It’s difficult to believe that this will be my fourteenth consecutive year conducting polar bear captures in Alaska. From my first fall capture season in 1998, I always assume that each season and year will be my last such opportunity. Why? Because so few people have the opportunity to work out on the frozen seas, and fewer yet with an animal as magnificent as the polar bear. It is both an opportunity and a real honour and one I do not take for granted – every flight, every day, every year.

Dr Helen Findlay, of Plymouth Marine Laboratory, describes the hard work that went into creating the largest sampling hole yet, and how the ice base scientists use these access points to the sea below.

“Today we drilled another hole in the sea ice through to the seawater below. It’s an impressive 1.8 metres long by 1 metre wide, and the sea ice we had to drill through was about 1.7 metres thick. This ice hole is a special one because it is going to be used for running experiments rather than just routine sampling of the seawater.

The storm that ‘drifted’ over us on Sunday didn’t really show its full strength until later on in the week. Winds increased to about 20 knots, gusting 30 knots at times, with snow being blown across the ground it reminded me of being a kid walking across a beach on a stormy autumn day with sand blowing all around me. It doesn’t take long for the winds to transform the snow, and drifts quickly formed around all our tents.