|Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA)|
Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) July
23, 2004 marked an historic day in Arctic research and
exploration as well as Russian-U.S. relations. On this date the
Russian research ship, the Professor Khromov, left Vladivostok,
Russia packed with U.S.and Russian, funded scientists to begin a
45-day collaborative journey of exploration and research in the
Arctic. Stemming from a 2003 Memorandum of Understanding for
World Ocean and Polar Regions Studies between NOAA and the
Russian Academy of Sciences, this cruise was the first activity
under the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic
(RUSALCA). RUSALCA means mermaid in the Russian language. In
November 2003, a RUSALCA planning workshop was held in Moscow,
Russia to outline the biological, geological, chemical and
physical oceanographic sampling strategies to be pursued in the
Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea. The Initial Expedition to the
Bering and Chukchi Seas (Arctic Oce