Rear Adm. Daniel Abel got a standing ovation for his leadership of the U.S. Coast Guard 17th District over the past two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis perspective and leadership is evident in everything that\u2019s going on in this state with the Coast Guard,\u201d Vice Adm. Charles Ray, Pacific Area Commander, said during the change of command ceremony Wednesday at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall.<\/p>\n
Abel assumed the duties of Commander of the Coast Guard 17th District in June 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he got here, he established his vision for what the Coast Guard would be about during his command … that the Arctic is important to us. This is not a one-time thing, it\u2019s not here today, gone tomorrow; this is our mission forever,\u201d Ray said.<\/p>\n
[See photos from the event here<\/a>]<\/p>\n In an interview after the ceremony, Abel said his biggest achievement in Alaska was his work preparing the Arctic for increased ship traffic given the melting ice. He was involved in developing Polar Code, a set of new international regulations for all ships that enter polar waters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to enforce that and make sure we have the capacity to do that. It\u2019s one thing to have the regulations; it\u2019s another to enforce it,\u201d Abel said.<\/p>\n He established the Arctic Waterways Safety Committee, chaired by former Kotzebue mayor Willie Goodwin, who gave the invocation at the ceremony. The committee was established to ensure that all the stakeholders in the North Slope have a say in what happens and the regulations that are up there.<\/p>\n [Abel takes control of Alaska Coast Guard<\/a>]<\/p>\n Abel said it was about \u201chearing from the subsistence communities, borough and village leadership, and industry with one voice, and asking them, \u2018What do you need from your Coast Guard?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He said the last pillar of this Arctic work was the Port Access Route Study, which determines how traffic should move through the Bering Strait.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s basically traffic lanes that will go all the way from Dutch Harbor, up through the Bering Strait, and go left and right. We worked with environmental groups and subsistence folks, and the biggest thing we could give is we have bottom-mapped exclusively up and around this route,\u201d Abel said.<\/p>\n He recognized that his two years as top leader of the Coast Guard in Alaska came at a crucial time for the Arctic.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the turning point. The president came up, the recognition that we need more ice breakers and when I got here, the comment was, \u2018We never do search and rescue in the Arctic.\u2019 Well, we\u2019re doing search and rescue in the Arctic now, so we\u2019ve turned a page,\u201d Abel said.<\/p>\n