Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering an area of approximately 14 million square kilometers. It is the coldest of all oceans and spans from the North Pole down to about 60 degrees north latitude. This vast, circular basin is almost entirely enclosed by the landmasses of Eurasia and North America.
The Thule people migrated east from present-day Alaska around 200 BC. The Thule tradition lasted until AD 1600, encompassing almost the entire Arctic region of North America and becoming the ancestors of the modern Inuit. These early inhabitants developed sophisticated technologies to survive the extreme cold.
Fridtjof Nansen made a nautical crossing of the Arctic Ocean in the Fram Expedition from 1893 to 1896. This expedition confirmed the reality of the thick, persistent ice cap and shattered the dream of a navigable polar sea. The myth of the Open Polar Sea had persisted into the 19th century before this confirmation.
The first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean was achieved in 1969 by Wally Herbert. He led a dog sled expedition from Alaska to Svalbard with air support. The first nautical transit of the North Pole was made in 1958 by the submarine USS Nautilus.
Research shows that the Arctic Ocean may become ice-free in the summer for the first time in human history by 2040. The Arctic Ocean is currently warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. This phenomenon is reshaping the region's climate and ecology.
On the 16th of July 2015, five nations signed a declaration committing to keep their fishing vessels out of a 1.1 million square mile zone in the central Arctic Ocean near the North Pole. The nations called for those countries to refrain from fishing there until there is better scientific knowledge about the marine resources. They also called for a regulatory system to be in place to protect those resources.