A literature study on sea ice revealed that there were on average 225 and 130 publications in the last 10 years for the Arctic and Antarctic/Southern Ocean, respectively. On the background on the significance of sea ice for the global climate, humanity and the strong decrease in Arctic Ocean ice thickness and summer ice cover the relative weight given to the Arctic seems adequate. A similar survey regarding marine biology and ecology in the two regions provided opposite evidence. On average 195 and 360 publications were listed for the last 10 years in the Arctic and Antarctic/Southern Ocean, respectively. Why is this so? On the background of the effects of climate change for humanity on the Northern Hemisphere the lack of biological and ecological research in the Arctic Ocean is worrying. Why is marine biology discriminated in the Arctic but flourishing in the Antarctic? And why is marine ecological knowledge so scant and unevenly distributed in the Arctic Ocean? In a time where the development in the Arctic Ocean is extremely rapid and on the background of our fragile basic knowledge of its ecosystem our lack of biological knowledge is upsetting. Explanations for these differences are attempted to be found in the lack of international cooperation in the pan-Arctic, a lasting effect of the Cold War and the lack of an Arctic Treaty. By going bipolar, the 4th International Polar Year missed a vital goal: a dedicated approach to investigate the Arctic Ocean would have been mankind's last chance to investigate the basic marine ecology of the Arctic Ocean before it changes forever. The lack of understanding of the basic function of the Arctic Ocean prevents good prediction, and future research will only be able to investigate change rather than understand its basic function.