Some Maryland scientists have been trying to get to the bottom, figuratively and literally, of what's going on in the Bering Sea off Alaska.

Along with an international team of more than 30 other scientists, Lee Cooper and Jacqueline Grebmeier, research professors at the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, spent much of March aboard a Coast Guard icebreaker exploring the ice and open water around St. Lawrence Island.  A story I wrote about their research cruise is in the Closeup section of today's Baltimore Sun.

They're involved in a six-year, $52 million study of the Bering, from the sea bottom to the atmosphere above, as well as the people who live along its shores.  The sea, which supplies half the seafood eaten in the United States, has been undergoing dramatic changes in recent years, as the ice that covers its surface in winter thins and melts earlier.  Scientists want to understand how the changing climate is affecting all aspects of the sea, and project what's to come.

Cooper's and Grebmeier's piece of the multi-dimensional study is to assess changes in the clams, worms and other benthic creatures on the bottom, which are an important food source for walruses and sea ducks.  They and their team dropped buckets down to the bottom to scoop up the sand and any critters in it - numbing work, with tempertures below and barely above zero degrees Fahrenheit.  Some of the crew are pictured above.

You can read more about the Bering Sea Project here and an account of the cruise here, with plenty of photos.  And check out "Extreme Ice," a Nova video series on the research.

Cooper, seen at left working inside the icebreaker Healy, told me he's been visiting Alaska regulalrly since he first visited it 30 years ago as a graduate student studying sea grasses. He lived in Fairbanks for five years while getting his Ph.D. He and Grebmeier, besides sharing a professional interest in that part of the world, happen to be married.

In addition to Cooper, Grebmeier and five others from the university's Center for Environmental Science, there was a teacher from Charles County aboard for the three-week cruise: Deanna Wheeler (no relation).  You can read her journal here.  Definitely not your ordinary spring break trip! 

Besides the brutal cold, the folks on board had to be mindfull that the seemingly empty frozen sea surface might harbor polars bears, camouflaged in white, prowling for food.  Coast Guard crew members kept watch, as seen below.

Photos courtesy of Chris Conner, UMCES)