One of the motivations for this expedition was the dramatic loss of the Ayles Ice Shelf on August 13, 2005, which garnered intense media coverage world -wide. Almost the entire Ayles Ice Shelf calved from the northern edge of Ellesmere Island. This reduced the remaining ice shelves there from 6 to 5, and continued a trend of dramatic loss of these ice shelves over the past century. Since 1900, approximately 90% of the Ellesmere Island ice shelves have calved and floated away. This is a one-way process as there is insufficient new ice formation to replace the ice that has been lost. The Ayles calving event was the largest in at least the last 25 years; a total of 87.1 sq km (33.6 sq miles) of ice was lost in this event, of which the largest piece was 66.4 sq km (25.6 sq. miles) in area. This piece is equivalent in size to approximately 11,000 football fields or a little larger than the City of Manhattan.

For more information on this event, including satellite imagery of the ice shelf loss, please follow this link to the Canadian Ice Service...Ayles Ice Shelf Breaks in Canadian Arctic and see our list of publications.

A tracking beacon was deployed on the Ayles Ice Island in 2007. Track the ice island drift, and check its current position here...Ayles Ice Island drift buoy

CBC News - Indepth - The Canadian Military - “The Rangers: Guarding sovereignty in remote coastal, northern regions” (April 10, 2007)

CTV - “CDN Forces complete Arctic sovereignty patrol” (April 9, 2007)

Macleans - “Canada’s ragtag arctic forces: Flying the flag and hunting for seal with the Canadian Rangers” (Aug 22, 2006)