along with several scientists, our instructions are to meet up with the ship outside the port of nome, alaska. we're issued these orange suits, called mustangs. protection in case someone goes overboard. a fall into frigid waters could mean death within minutes. ahead, our home for the next two weeks - the healy. once all the scientists and i are aboard, the ship gets underway. our journey will take us from nome to about thousand miles from the north pole. a region remote, pristine, and once all but impassable except for a polar icebreaker like the healy. but scientists say summers here could soon be ice free. >> we are now passing through the narrowest part of the bering strait, where we've got the united states to my left, and to my right, just 50 miles away, is russia. now during these warmer months hundreds of ships are passing through here, and that number is expected to rise as the levels of sea ice recede. and the bering strait is important to more than just ships - it is also a major migration way for hundreds of thousands of marine mammals every year. >> plan is to finish the

of ports along that coastline. so you can't mobilize a lot of ships. there aren't very many services along that area. >> the port of nome is only 22 feet deep which is far too shallow for any big ship. in fact their are no deepwater ports in all of the alaskan arctic the nearest one is 800 miles to the south in the aleutian islands. >> right now nome is being considered as the site for a new deepwater port. mayor michels thinks that would be a great start. >> so you think that you guys need the infrastructure? >> we do. we're the eyes and the ears here in the arctic. we live here. the us, if they want to be at the top of the game as an arctic nation, they need to invest in the infrastructure needed for everything that's happening up here. >> you've worked with shell for a very long time. >> yes. >> do you think they are going to go back? >> yes, not only shell but other operators. there is a big prize there. given that we do have accidents and we will, we need to have ways to lower the likelihoods of those accidents happening. >> you see exploration for oil and production of oil in the us arctic as risky? >> yes. >> yet