The Alaska Dispatch News today reported that the Coast Guard icebreaker Healy left Seattle earlier this week for a 4-month research assignment in the Arctic that will focus on the biology, chemistry, geology, and physics of the Arctic Ocean and its ecosystems as well as sonar mapping of the Extended Continental Shelf.  The Healy crew will be joined by scientists and researches from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, University of Alaska Anchorage, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Office of Naval Research, and University of New Hampshire.