The U.S. Coast Guard today announced the Coast Guard Cutter Healy’s return to Seattle following a 127-day scientific research mission deployment to the Arctic.

The mission included the deployment of acoustic bottom moorings to collect data on how climate change and reduced ice coverage is affecting the Arctic Ocean.  The Coast Guard noted that researchers also discovered new jellyfish species in the Chukchi Sea, collected hundreds of living specimens in the Chukchi for laboratory study, and conducted a hydrographic survey of the extended continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea (mapping more than 10,000 square miles over an area double the size of California).