Aleutians

An icebreaker leased to Shell had to return to Dutch Harbor early Friday morning after its hull was found to have a rupture.

Every summer, a team of federal exterminators set up shop in the southwest corner of the state. Their job is to root out non-native animals that might disturb the Alaska Maritime Wildlife Refuge.

The ship and its crew are in Alaska this summer to enforce fisheries regulations and provide search and rescue support. They are slated to depart again Monday.

Billions of dollars worth of drilling equipment and support vessels operated by Royal Dutch Shell are sitting out in the Bay in front of Dutch Harbor this week.

There’s very little opposition in the tiny Alaskan town in comparison to that in Seattle, where some environmental activists went so far as to chain themselves to one of Shell’s Arctic drilling support vessels last month.

Satellite imagery shows elevated surface temperatures in the summit crater at Cleveland Volcano, roughly 140 miles west of Dutch Harbor.