Polar

BOOTHBAY HARBOR, Maine — Republican lawmakers are targeting one of the country’s longest-standing pieces of environmental legislation, credited with helping save rare whales from extinction.

GOP leaders believe they now have the political will to remove key pieces of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, enacted in 1972 to protect whales, seals, polar bears and other sea animals. The law also places restrictions on commercial fishermen, shippers and other marine industries.

A Republican-led bill in the works has support from fishermen in Maine who say the law makes lobster fishing more difficult, lobbyists for big-money species such as tuna in Hawaii and crab in Alaska, and marine manufacturers who see the law as antiquated.

Conservation groups adamantly oppose the changes and say weakening the law will erase years of hard-won gains for jeopardized species such as the vanishing North Atlantic right whale, which is vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear. There are fewer than 400 right whales remaining.

Here’s what to know about the protection act and the proposed changes.

Why the 1972 law still matters

“The Marine Mammal Protection Act is important because it’s one of our bedrock laws that help us to base conservation measures on the best available science,” said Kathleen Collins, senior marine campaign manager with International Fund for Animal Welfare. “Species on the brink of extinction have been brought back.”

It was enacted the year before the Endangered Species Act, at a time when the movement to save whales from extinction was growing. Scientist Roger Payne had discovered that whales could sing in the late 1960s, and their voices soon appeared on record albums and throughout popular culture.

The law protects all marine mammals and prohibits capturing or killing them in U.S. waters or by U.S. citizens on the high seas. It allowed for preventative measures to stop commercial fishing ships and other businesses from accidentally harming animals such as whales and seals. The animals can be harmed by entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with ships and other hazards at sea.

The law also prevents the hunting of marine mammals, including polar bears, with exceptions for Indigenous groups. Some of those animals can be legally hunted in other countries.

Changes to oil and gas operations

Republican Rep. Nick Begich of Alaska, a state with a large fishing industry, submitted a draft this summer that would roll back aspects of the law. The bill says the act has “unduly and unnecessarily constrained government, tribes and the regulated community” since its inception.

The proposal states that it would make changes such as lowering population goals for marine mammals from “maximum productivity” to the level needed to “support continued survival.” It would also ease rules on what constitutes harm to marine mammals.

For example, the law prevents harassment of sea mammals such as whales and defines harassment as activities that have “the potential to injure a marine mammal.” The proposed changes would limit the definition to activities that actually injure the animals. That change could have major implications for industries such as oil and gas exploration where rare whales live.

That poses an existential threat to the Rice’s whale, which numbers only in the dozens and lives in the Gulf of Mexico, conservationists said. And the proposal takes specific aim at the North Atlantic right whale protections with a clause that would delay rules designed to protect that declining whale population until 2035.

Begich and his staff did not return calls for comment on the bill, and his staff declined to provide an update about where it stands in Congress. Begich has said he wants “a bill that protects marine mammals and also works for the people who live and work alongside them, especially in Alaska.”

Fishing groups want restrictions loosened

A coalition of fishing groups from both coasts has come out in support of the proposed changes. Some of the same groups lauded a previous effort by the Trump administration to reduce regulatory burdens on commercial fishing.

The groups said in a July letter to House members that they believe Begich’s changes reflect “a positive and necessary step” for American fisheries’ success.

Restrictions imposed on lobster fishermen of Maine are designed to protect the right whale, but they often provide little protection for the animals while limiting one of America’s signature fisheries, said Virginia Olsen, political director of the Maine Lobstering Union. The restrictions stipulate where lobstermen can fish and what kinds of gear they can use. The whales are vulnerable to lethal entanglement in heavy fishing rope.

Gathering more accurate data about right whales while revising the original law would help protect the animals, Olsen said.

“We do not want to see marine mammals harmed; we need a healthy, vibrant ocean and a plentiful marine habitat to continue Maine’s heritage fishery,” Olsen said.

Some members of other maritime industries have also called on Congress to update the law. The National Marine Manufacturers Assn. said in a statement that the rules have not kept pace with advancements in the marine industry, making innovation in the business difficult.

Environmentalists fight back

Numerous environmental groups have vowed to fight to save the protection act. They characterized the proposed changes as part of the Trump administration’s assault on environmental protections.

The act was instrumental in protecting the humpback whale, one of the species most beloved by whale watchers, said Gib Brogan, senior campaign director with Oceana. Along with other sea mammals, humpbacks would be in jeopardy without it, he said.

“The Marine Mammal Protection Act is flexible. It works. It’s effective. We don’t need to overhaul this law at this point,” Brogan said.

What does this mean for seafood imports

The original law makes it illegal to import marine mammal products without a permit and allows the U.S. to impose import prohibitions on seafood products from foreign fisheries that don’t meet U.S. standards.

The import embargoes are a major sticking point because they punish American businesses, said Gavin Gibbons, chief strategy officer of the National Fisheries Institute, a Virginia-based seafood industry trade group. It’s critical to source seafood globally to be able to meet American demand for seafood, he said.

The National Fisheries Institute and a coalition of industry groups sued the federal government Thursday over what they described as unlawful implementation of the protection act. Gibbons said the groups don’t oppose the act but want to see it responsibly implemented.

“Our fisheries are well regulated and appropriately fished to their maximum sustainable yield,” Gibbons said. “The men and women who work our waters are iconic and responsible. They can’t be expected to just fish more here to make up a deficit while jeopardizing the sustainability they’ve worked so hard to maintain.”

Some environmental groups said the Republican lawmakers’ proposed changes could weaken American seafood competitiveness by allowing imports from poorly regulated foreign fisheries.

Whittle writes for the Associated Press.

The U.S. Air Force is a step closer to finally getting a replacement for its aging, unique LC-130H “Ski Bird” polar airlift aircraft. Between them, the Air Force and Pentagon have adjusted the budget to move forward on the recapitalization plan, which is seen as increasingly urgent, with the Arctic region, in particular, becoming an area of growing strategic importance.

The new disclosure comes from a Pentagon budget reprogramming document dated September 17, 2025. By law, the U.S. military has to seek approval from Congress to reallocate funding from one part of its budget to another.

The document states that funds of $29 million are to be realigned within the Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation, Air Force, 25/26, appropriation.

“This reprogramming action transfers funds within an appropriation for proper execution,” the document states. “The reclassification is required to execute funds properly in accordance with congressional intent. These actions are determined to be necessary in the national interest.”

The sum involved in the reprogramming action may seem small, but it is no less significant because of that. Essentially, this document is about moving money to fund work to develop the modifications (known as non-recurring engineering, or NDE) that will be needed to create the new LC-130J — a ski-equipped version of the much more modern C-130J airframe, in a new configuration that is still to be developed.

Administratively speaking, the reprogramming action has shifted money from a larger C-130 bucket into one focused on specialized variants of the Hercules, including HC-130Js, MC-130Js, and now LC-130Js.

Today, the ski-equipped LC-130H serves exclusively with the New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing, home-stationed at Stratton Air National Guard Base. These aircraft are primarily used to resupply Arctic and Antarctic research stations and radar sites in the high Arctic, landing directly on ice and snowpack runways. The Air Force has flown these demanding missions since 1956 and began using earlier versions of the Hercules for the task in 1959.

The fleet of 10 LC-130Hs includes three that were converted from ex-Navy LC-130Rs; the most recent are three new-build aircraft that were completed in 1995–96. Since then, the aircraft have been upgraded with eight-bladed NP-2000 propellers, as well as digital cockpit displays, new flight managemenmc-1t systems, multifunction radar, and other improvements. The aircraft have also been reworked alongside other Air Force C-130Hs under the Avionics Modernization Program (AMP).

However, the LC-130Hs — some of which were built in the 1970s — are clearly showing their age, with only five out of the 10-strong fleet being mission-capable at any given time. Overall, the aircraft suffers from reliability issues and high maintenance costs. The problem is only getting worse, with all of the aircraft having parts that require total replacement, something that is now almost impossible since those components are no longer in production.

Congress has, for some time now, been pushing for a successor based on the C-130J.

Back in 2017, Inside Defense reported that the New York ANG was in talks with Lockheed Martin about a potential LC-130J to outright replace its older aircraft.

But it wasn’t until June of last year that the bipartisan Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allocated $290 million for the replacement of the two LC-130Hs with two new LC-130Js.

Chuck Schumer, who was then the Senate Majority Leader and who has been a prominent supporter of the LC-130H recapitalization, said: “We need the House to follow suit as we continue the fight to deliver this funding in end-of-year appropriations. There is no time to waste in delivering new ski-birds for the 109th, and I will continue to fight tooth and nail to secure this funding in the final bill.”

Schumer described the 109th Airlift Wing fleet as “critical to supporting the National Science Foundation’s polar research mission and maintaining U.S. presence and leadership in the Arctic and Antarctic.”

Schumer continued: “After more than three decades of year-round service in some of the harshest environments, these planes have been falling into disrepair and are in constant need of maintenance, threatening aircrew safety and their ability to execute their mission. That’s why for years I have been pushing the Air Force to recapitalize this essential fleet so new planes can land in the Capital Region.”

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, Adjutant General of the New York National Guard, said, “Obtaining two new LC-130J ‘Ski Bird’ aircraft in the FY 2025 NDAA is vital for our national security, and supports the Department of Defense’s Arctic Strategy, as well as the National Science Foundation missions in Antarctica and the Arctic.”

In August of last year, the Senate Appropriations Committee, a key congressional panel, outlined its demand for an LC-130H replacement, recommending funding for the LC-130J. The committee, in its mark of the fiscal year 2025 defense spending bill, called for $200 million to be added to begin work on the project, stating:

“The Committee notes the importance of polar tactical airlift capabilities for Arctic and Antarctic operations. Further, the Committee notes that the study conducted by the Secretary of the Air Force in coordination with the Commander, U.S. Northern Command, and Director, Air National Guard, titled “Fiscal Year 2023 LC-130 Report,” identifies improvements made in recent years to the LC-130H fleet currently conducting this mission. The study also notes that continual modernization investments and performance enhancements will ensure the relevance and viability of this aircraft and its future mission. However, the Committee understands that this report may not fully take into account the operational activity of these aircraft.”

At this stage, it is unclear if funding for the two LC-130Js included in the FY 2025 NDAA has been appropriated, but the recent budget reprogramming document at least indicates that the Pentagon has been looking to use existing funding to get the ball moving on the project.

Proponents of the LC-130 and its mission point out that these aircraft are vital for maintaining and strengthening the United States’ presence, operations, and research in the Arctic and Antarctica.

The Arctic is a region of growing strategic importance, seen as an area in which the United States and its allies will face increasingly security challenges. Not only Russia, but also China is expanding its presence in the region.

Already, there is developing an increasingly strategic race to expand control and military influence across the Arctic region.

Russia is actively building up its military footprint in the wider region, with extensive efforts being made to establish a more permanent footprint above the Arctic Circle.

The Kremlin’s many investments in the region include increasing its air and naval power in the Arctic Circle, and the Russian military has been establishing new bases here, as well as reactivating ones that fell into disuse after the Cold War.

For some years now, Russia has enjoyed access to more than 50 airfields and ports in the Arctic region, from where it is able to project air and naval power that could deny the United States and its allies access to the Arctic. Russian maritime activity in the region is also enabled to a significant degree by a large and growing fleet of icebreakers, which dwarfs those used by the United States and its allies combined.

And as the retreating ice caps open up new shipping routes as well as providing access to natural resources that were previously inaccessible, or at least much harder to exploit, the strategic importance of the Arctic region is only going to grow.

A relatively new player here is China, which has its eye on new shipping routes and natural resources. This has seen Beijing expanding its presence in the Arctic, and, in response to this, the Pentagon has defined the Arctic as “an increasingly competitive domain,” issuing specific warnings about China’s growing interest in the region.

Still, it’s by no means easy for the U.S. military to extend its reach over the Arctic in peacetime, let alone at war. It’s this reality that has driven interest in gaining control of Greenland, or at least expanding the U.S. military presence there, as you can read about here.

In the meantime, the existing LC-130H and the crews of the 109th are also adapting to this new reality.

Earlier this year, for example, an LC-130H touched down on freshwater ice for the first time in decades, reflecting the Air Force’s shift toward “defensive or offensive operations” in the Arctic. The Ski-Bird landed on Parsons Lake in Inuvik, Canada, in March, as part of a joint U.S.–Canadian exercise.

“We are excited to see what the future holds for the LC-130 Hercules and 109th Airlift Wing as we continue to evolve our capabilities in the Arctic,” Lt. Col. Matthew Sala, the 109th deployed commander, said in a release at the time.

Now, with the LC-130J on the horizon, the 109th Airlift Wing should be that much better equipped to support operations — whether military or civilian — in the challenging Arctic and Antarctic regions.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Jimmy Doherty has been a familiar face on our TV screens for more than 20 years and he is back with a new series this weekend

Jimmy Doherty first graced our television screens over two decades ago, featuring in his best mate Jamie Oliver‘s cooking programmes.

After training to be a pig farmer, he established his own farm and founded the Essex Pig Company, which became the focus of the reality TV documentary, Jimmy’s Farm.

These days, Jimmy juggles his farming duties with his television career, and this weekend he’s in the new Channel 4 show, Jimmy Doherty’s Big Bear Rescue.

The programme follows Jimmy, 50, at his Suffolk farm and wildlife refuge, where he welcomes some homeless polar bears, a pack of wolves, and two brown bears looking for their forever homes.

All of the action is filmed on his sprawling 70-acre family farm. He shares this idyllic setting with his telly producer wife Michaela Furney and their four daughters, not to mention a host of pets. Let’s delve into his life, reports Essex Live.

Early life

Born in Ilford before relocating to Essex at three years old, Jimmy struck up a friendship with a young Jamie Oliver at primary school, and they’ve remained close ever since.

He’s always had a passion for animals and wildlife, and from the tender age of 13, he worked in the tropical butterfly house at Mole Hall Wildlife Park in Saffron Walden, helping care for a variety of animals ranging from otters to chimpanzees.

Jimmy pursued animal biology at university and served for five years in the Royal Corps of Signals. He later trained as a pig farmer and now owns his own farm and operates The Essex Pig Company.

TV star wife and daughters

Jimmy Doherty’s wife, Michaela Furney, first crossed paths with her future husband while working as a runner on Jamie Oliver’s show, Jamie’s Kitchen, back in 2002. The shoot led her to the Cumbrian farm where Jimmy was employed at the time.

Michaela eventually chose to leave her bustling London career behind to embrace farm life with Jimmy. In a candid chat with MailOnline, she reflected: “One of the biggest things was giving up my career; I was very focused and it was a good lifestyle. But it was my decision: Jim didn’t put any pressure on me.”

Although she stepped away from TV production, Michaela found herself in front of the lens for the documentary series, Jimmy’s Farm. Initially resistant to the idea due to the intrusive nature of filming, she confessed: “We’re just normal people and the attention can be scary and hurtful,” adding, “I was still commuting when they began filming, so at first I thought I wouldn’t be involved – that was how Jim persuaded me.”

She also revealed the emotional toll of being filmed: “They used lots of shots of me crying, but it was just in frustration at all the setbacks, the worst of which were the fights with the council over planning permission [for outbuildings and, retrospectively, the shop]. I don’t cry that often – they just seemed to catch it on camera every time I did.”

The couple tied the knot in August 2009 with a reception held at their farm, and they have since become doting parents to four daughters.

Showbiz pals

Since their primary school days, Jimmy and Jamie Oliver have remained steadfast mates, presenting television programmes together such as Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, whilst pursuing various other joint ventures – and remarkably, they appear never to have had a serious falling-out (save for the occasional spat during TV challenges).

It was actually Jimmy who played cupid, introducing Jamie to his future wife Jools when he was just 18. Speaking to MailOnLine, Jimmy recalled: “We went on a double date to the cinema in Cambridge – me, Jamie, Juliette and Sue Stump. He had a Fiesta with big fog lights and an exhaust like a tractor on it. We were going over a hill listening to Bob Marley, Buffalo Soldier. We’re all singing, the guy braked in front of us and Jamie smashed into him and knocked his front lights out.”

Their profound friendship was particularly touching when Jamie dedicated his book, Jamie Cooks Italy, to Jimmy’s late father. Jimmy revealed: “There’s a picture of him at my brother’s wedding on there. Jamie gave me the book and I’m used to my dad being dead, but sorrow is a weird thing. I couldn’t control it, I had to go away on my own. Then I came back and said thank you and it started again. But luckily I had an eye infection so I could blame it on that. Pink eyes, weeping.”

On the farm

Jimmy’s Suffolk farm, which serves as the backdrop for the ITV series Jimmy and Shivi’s Farmhouse Breakfast, is rather extraordinary given its collection of exotic creatures, including polar bears and monkeys – the website actually claims it’s Europe’s largest polar bear reserve. In a chat with the Express, he shared: “And then you’ve got the wildlife park where we’ve got polar bears, we’ve got monkeys, we’ve got our anteaters. So we do different activities with them.

“One morning we played hide and seek with our monkeys. We hid all their food around and they had to go and find it. And I remember that for the camera system, it took him about 15 minutes trying to get the GoPro in this special box and tighten it all up. It took the monkey about five seconds to undo or and grab the camera, bite it and run off with it. But we’ve got some brilliant monkey selfies!”

Jimmy Doherty’s Big Bear Rescue is on Channel 4 on Sunday, July 20 at 8pm

Pyramiden, a town in the Arctic Circle that has stood empty of humans since 1998, is a living museum to Soviet life. Visit today and you will find cups left on the table, skiing equipment abandoned in the hallway and newspaper cuttings on the wall

An eerie ghost town has been left exactly as it was when crews abandoned it 27 years ago.

The Mary Celeste ship has been etched into the memories of school children for decades. The American merchant brigantine was discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores on December 4, 1872, with food still on plates as if the crew was about to sit down to dinner. The mystery surrounding the abandoned ship has captivated people for over 150 years, leading to numerous theories about the fate of its crew.

Far less well known is the story of Pyramiden, a town in the Arctic Circle that has stood empty of humans since 1998. Visit today and you will find cups left on the table, skiing equipment abandoned in the hallway and newspaper cuttings on the wall.

“Walking Pyramiden today gives you a glimpes into the Soviet-style nostalgia, outdoor as well as indoor. Best of all, its not an artificial scenery aimed for some kind of movie-production. This is real. The smell of papirosa, likely the strongest cigarette ever made, stains on the indoor walls. Hammer and Sickle ornaments and the Soviet star are used as decoration around the town,” the Barent Observer writes of Pyramiden.

READ MORE: ‘Travel’s hottest destination – a location that’s killed 1/1000th of all visitors’

“In a remote room inside the Palace of Culture are a few empty bottles of the cheap domestic Rossiya- and Priviet vodka. A book with the transcripts from the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union lays on a desk. That was the first congress presided over by Mikhail Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Central Committee.”

There are few signs of life beyond the occasional hardy seabird, an Arctic fox or a polar bear looking for its next meal.

Unlike the Mary Celeste, there is no mystery around why the occupants of Pyramiden left in such a hurry. The Russian state-owned mining company Trust Arktikugol closed down Pyramiden’s mining operations in April 1998, following 53 years of continuous activity.

The end of the settlement neared as coal prices dwindled, difficulties with coal extraction from the mountain became more apparent, and 141 people tragically lost their lives in 1996 at Operafjellet. Miners and their families perished in the plane crash that had been ferrying them from Pyramiden to Barentsburg. Such was the scale of the tragedy and the impact it had on the town of 1,000 that its continued operation proved impossible.

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The town was first founded by Sweden in 1910 but was sold to the USSR 17 years later. From 1955 to 1998, up to nine million tonnes of coal were thought to have been pumped out of Pyramiden. Svalbard belongs to Norway under the Svalbard treaty, which allows citizens from all its member countries to become residents. The treaty reads: “All citizens and all companies of every nation under the treaty are allowed to become residents and to have access to Svalbard including the right to fish, hunt or undertake any kind of maritime, industrial, mining or trade activity.”

In its pomp, it boasted a theatre, studios for creative arts, and a library. The schools, 24-hour canteen, and sports complex are all gone. All that remains is a statue of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, the northernmost monument to him in the world.

Today, the main thing occupying the ghost town now are the terrifying polar bears. However, six people operate as rifle-carrying warders in the summer. Despite the nearest settlement being some 31 miles away, dark tourism has been gently ticking along since 2013, but you can only access Pyramiden by boat or snowmobile for nine months of the year. One visitor to the town in 2018 wrote in Haaretz : “There are thousands of angry polar bears all around us.”