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Polar Bear Response to Sea Ice Loss

Hi Christina, I was sharing your journals with a class and saw the information on how much fuel the Polar Sea uses(1.36 m gallons of fuel). The question for your ship's crew is- How does that volume compare with what a cargo or container ship uses? And is it bunker fuel? Thanks! Keep those great pictures coming :) Lollie

Fri, 10/23/2009 - 12:30

Cristina Galvan

Hi Lollie,I've checked out the fuel questions you posted. On average the boat
uses about 11,000 gallons of fuel per day. However, that varies
depending on how much ice we are breaking through - the more ice we
break through, the more engine power we need, the more fuel we need.
Container or cargo ships generally run on just one big engine and use
less fuel than what we use. However, they use bunker fuel - which I
just learned is basically oil. On the Polar Sea, they use diesel fuel.
The Polar Sea holds more fuel than the other Coast Guard cutters , which
hold on average 80,000 - 100,000 gallons of fuel rather than the 1.4
million gallons of fuel that the Polar Sea carries. What is important
to remember is that unlike the cutters, the Polar Sea can not easily go
to port to refuel and she uses more fuel for the task of breaking
through ice. If we ran out of fuel while up here in the Arctic, we
would be stranded until another Icebreaker ship could come rescue us!
Luckily we have only used about 40% of the fuel on board the ship.
Thanks so much!
Cristina