Temp: 30 F   Weather: Solid fog, 4 foot seas, 10 knot winds

Magically, the weather had a complete change overnight. This morning was smooth—very calm seas and winds of 10 knots or less. The seas were slightly confused, having a swell coming from the east, hitting the port side, and wind waves coming from the south, splashing against our bow. But after last night, it's nothing. There is a perfectly sunny, blue sky day out there a couple hundred feet above us, but we've caught only a glimpse of it. A solid fog bank has settled in over Hope Basin on account of the 34 degree water temperature and 30 degree air temperature.

(Photo: Sunrise tries to burn through dense fog)

Follow the Healy's journey home on this map.

Today we are transiting back through the Bering Strait, one of the Arctic's most abundant areas for birds and other wildlife. There are as many as 10 million seabirds that nest in this region, and even though we are well past breeding season, I've seen more birds today than I have since we last passed through the Strait. Two of the species were life birds. First, there were several Parakeet Auklets which I somehow managed to miss on my last trip in the Bering Sea, and for the first 19 days of this trip. And second, I got a really good look at a Dovekie. Also known as the Little Auk, there are millions of these birds in other parts of the world, but here in the Bering Strait there is only a small population of 100 or so breeders.

After passing by Point Hope early this morning, we crossed the Arctic Circle, and then past the Diomede Islands at the center of the Strait. That means goodbye to the Arctic Ocean, and only a short 800 miles until port in Dutch Harbor. I'm thinking a lot about how far we've come, how I've been able to visit so many places I'd spent so much time wondering about, like Hanna Shoal, Barrow Canyon, and the deep Canada Basin. Before coming, my top two areas of interest were the Bering Strait which covers both US and Russian waters, and the entrance to the Northwest Passage in Canada. Because of climate change, there is a strong tie between these two places. The Passage is a shorter, attractive alternative to the Panama Canal for commercial shipping. These days the Northwest Passage is ice free in late summer, and as the ice-free period lengthens, more ships will be able to pass. There will also be an increase in shipping along the Northern Sea Route following Russia's northern coast. All of these ships will pass through the Bering Strait on their way to trading destinations.

I only saw one other ship on this trip: a Coast Guard Cutter up in the Chukchi Sea, which was patrolling there to address anything that might come up during Shell's exploratory drilling. There were a couple other ships that I know crossed our path, obscured by fog or darkness, one in the Beaufort Sea and one today in the Bering. Over the season there are more ships passing through the Strait than you might expect, but based on what I have seen during October, they are infrequent.

In recent history, the Arctic was so forbidding and sparsely populated that few dared explore it. Even today the area is not exactly inviting or easy to study. We currently know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Over the next decade or two, this might change, and worldwide trading could realign through this quiet area that not so long ago was off the edge of the map.

Melanie Smith, Landscape Ecologist, Audubon Alaska