In honour of the Coast Guard’s 50th Anniversary, the Bank of Canada released a new $50 polymer banknote featuring Canada’s Research Icebreaker, the CCGS Amundsen.


The Louis S. St- Laurent is to be decommissioned in 2017.


CCG Radio Officer Cindy Loubert on duty at MCTS Iqaluit, Nunavut serving as the eyes and ears of northern waterways.


Built in 1979 and first commissioned as the CCGS Sir John Franklin, then renamed, the recently


commemorated CCGS Amundsen for example represents a unique part of the Coast Guard’s Arctic fleet. In 2003, with the assistance of the International Joint Ventures Fund of Canada Foundation, the Amundsen was retrofitted to give it the capability to serve as a state of the art research icebreaker with new scientific equipment and technology. Reflective of the research component of her duties, she is equipped with a moon pool, (an open-


ing that gives access to water below) located on the hull of the ship, allowing researchers to lower tools and instruments well below the waterline when the seas are high or covered by ice. The moon pool gives divers much easier access in and out of the water and has proven itself to be an invaluable aid to the efficacy and overall success of the Amundsen’s research missions. Between May to mid-October, her primary mandate in the North is to save life at sea. In 2010,


when the Clipper Adventurer cruise ship ran aground off the Nunavut coast, the Amundsen was the nearest vessel at the time and immediately went to the aid of the ship and passengers. With the ever-changing conditions of Canada’s Arctic, she also plays a pivotal role in research and education and has given Canadians as well as international students and researchers unprecedented access to the many mysteries of the Arctic Ocean. The Amundsen and her crew are dedicated to providing a highly functional platform to gaining


better understanding of the ongoing transformations in Canada’s Arctic and how we as a country should be responding to the many key issues surrounding the impacts of climate change. With the important research done aboard her, our country’s governmental


institutions, organizations,


policy-makers, northern stakeholders, and our international partners are all much better positioned March/April 2012


above & beyond 11


Captain Michel Bourdeau with a Canadian Coast Guard Rescue Specialist aboard CCGS Pierre Radisson.


© SOURCE: WWW.BANKOFCANADA.CA/BANKNOTES


© CAROL LAUNDERVILLE


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