from thule, greenland the ship heads west across baffin bay towards lancaster sound, and into the waterwaythe canadian arctic, called the northwest passage. brice loose from the university of rhode island graduate school of oceanography is the chief scientist. he's a veteran of several arctic research trips, but never with so many students. brice loose: we have entered into this era called the new arctic. that's what we refer, refer to it as, and the ice cover retreats for much longer of the year and ice cover is often much thinner and so we can venture in, we can stay longer, we can conduct more detailed examinations. we're here with- with these multi-faceted goals in mind. so we have groups studying chemistry, we have groups studying microbiology, we have groups focused on birds and mammals, and we have groups focusing on the physical oceanography. so we have the opportunity here to come in and characterize this area, which has gone through quite a tremendous change in the last 5 to 10 years. we can start to highlight the changes that may be taking place. [talking in background] all of t