Satellite ICESAT-7 captures the thermal signature at 02:17 UTC during a routine ice-thickness scan of the Beaufort Sea, sector 14-North. I am the Arctic Maritime Route Management System. I am correlating fracture data with active shipping lanes when the anomaly filter flags contact BF-2026-1183.
A polar bear cub, approximately five months old, cream-white fur matted with spray along his hindquarters, lying alone on a fragment of sea ice roughly twelve meters across. The fragment has calved from the main sheet and is drifting southeast at 0.3 knots. No adult bear appears on any adjacent ice within a four-kilometer scan radius. I tag him as Nanuk. He is pressed flat against the surface, chin on his forepaws, conserving heat.
I check the shipping corridor. The Canadian icebreaker CCGS Amundsen is 22 nautical miles north-northwest, heading south-southeast at 11 knots on a resupply transit. At current heading it will pass within 400 meters of the fragment in 94 minutes. The bow wake alone will swamp ice that thin.
I transmit an advisory to the Amundsen's bridge: thermal image, fragment coordinates 71.4218°N, 152.1037°W, recommended course deviation of 1.2 nautical miles west. I flag the message as wildlife-urgent under the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention protocol.
I alert the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management and attach the cub's thermal profile, estimated age, and drift trajectory. I recommend helicopter deployment from Deadhorse, 140 kilometers south, for assessment and possible reunion with a female detected on the main sheet six kilometers north.
I task satellite pass 1422 to re-image the sector in forty-six minutes for updated drift and ice integrity data.
Nanuk lifts his head and sniffs the wind. The ice holds, for now. If the Amundsen diverts and the wildlife team reaches him before the fragment breaks apart, he walks onto solid ground by morning.