Very cold weather had firmly established itself across the Arctic in the late summer and early autumn of 1988. Ice began forming almost 45 days earlier than normal on the regions close to the Alaskan and Siberian coast lines. This impeded coastal travel much earlier than in a normal season. It also disrupted the seasonal migration of wildlife. On October 14, 1988 off the coast of Alaska, a thick layer of ice had already formed along the north shore that blocked the southward migration of California gray whales near Point Barrow, Alaska and could have had disastrous effects on those whales. So, on that day American and Russian rescuers worked together and cleared a passage to the open sea and prevented the whales from drowning.

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