The Canadian military and possibly the coast guard appear to have been keeping tabs on a Chinese research vessel as it returns to Arctic waters off Alaska for the second year in a row.
Data compiled by an independent researcher and ship tracker, Steffan Watkins, shows a Canadian air force CP-140 surveillance plane was flying in the vicinity of the Xue Long (Snow Dragon) 2 as it exited the Bering Strait on Sunday.
The aircraft, according to Watkins’s research, relocated to Anchorage, Alaska, from its base in Comox, B.C., on July 9. It has conducted four patrols since then, including the most recent one involving the vessel, which is China’s first domestically built polar research ship.
