Canadian Ice Service

On the very weak basis that if it’s to do with government then it’s related to law, I’m bringing the Canadian Ice Service to your attention, an agency I’d not heard of until I read about it in a recent BBC story about Ayles Ice Island, a collosal piece of our frozen north the size of Manhattan that’s been floating further and further away from its Ellesmere Island home since it calved two years ago. (Okay, an issue for legal research: what if the thing floated so far towards Greenland that it trespassed into what had been Danish waters? Could we argue that Canadian sovereignty had been thus enlarged? Discuss.) Where else could you find a map demonstrating “Ellesmere Island in relation to the rest of the world”?

As might be expected the CIS is following the Ayles Island story and has great graphics and a good narrative. Seems that our newest mobile territory hasn’t budged since February (and who could blame it?); but a serious crack has developed in the pack ice that’s holding it, which, we’re told, suggests that the Canuck Cube may soon be on the move again.

And lovers of esoteric information should visit the CIS site to learn about such things as the International Egg Code (yes, it has to do with ice), sea ice, the colour of icebergs (90% of which come to us from Greenland. Discuss.), and much much more.