Cutter begins third Arctic Ocean science mission

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Coast Guard says one of its cutters is under way in Alaska waters on its third science mission of 2011.

The 420-foot Healy is a polar icebreaker based in Seattle.

An agency press release says the crew picked up supplies Sept. 28 in the Aleutian Islands port of Dutch Harbor and headed north.

A science team will put out hydrographic moorings and recover others placed on earlier missions.

The crew of the Healy worked earlier this year with a Canadian coast guard ship to survey more than 4,600 miles of Arctic seafloor.

The Healy crew is scheduled for seven months of duty this year in the Arctic Ocean.

The fourth mission will focus on winter behavior of copepods (KOE’-peh-pods), a tiny crusteacean.