As Sea Ice Melts, Walruses Make For Land
Thousands of walruses since late summer have congregated in haulouts on Alaska's northwest shore, a phenomenon likely connected to record low Arctic sea ice.
Joel Garlich-Miller, a walrus expert with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in Anchorage, said Thursday animals began showing up on shore in late July, a month earlier than usual.
By August, several thousand animals - far more than normal - were bunched up in haulouts in a stretch of coastline from Barrow, America's northernmost community, to Cape Lisburne, about 300 miles to the southwest on the Chukchi Sea, as first reported by The Arctic Sounder.
"It's raising a bunch of conservation issues for us," Garlich-Miller said.
The agency's immediate concern is that groups of walruses congregated on land are susceptible to additional human contact, whether a low-flying airplane or a hunter's boat, that could can panic the group, setting off a deadly stampede to the water.
But having animals concentrated on land instead of the vast expanse of the Arctic ice pack also raises stress issues, said Chad Jay, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist.
Walruses on shore may be forced to swim farther to forage, expending more energy. Researchers would expect increased mortality to calves, Jay said, if they try to stay with their mothers during feeding rather than resting on a platform of sea ice over feeding grounds.
"You can imagine access to traditional foraging areas is diminished," Garlich-Miller said. "That is cause for concern."
The Fish and Wildlife Service has no evidence that the walruses have suffered nutritional stress or disease, said Bruce Woods, an agency spokesman.
The agency has received anecdotal information from hunters that some animals appear thin but not emaciated or endangered, Garlich-Miller said. As has happened in the last few years, the agency has receive reports of orphan calves.
Walruses also have been spotted at Kaktovik 325 miles southeast of Barrow on the Beaufort Sea, far east of their normal range, Garlich-Miller said.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Joel Garlich-Miller, a walrus expert with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in Anchorage, said Thursday animals began showing up on shore in late July, a month earlier than usual.
By August, several thousand animals - far more than normal - were bunched up in haulouts in a stretch of coastline from Barrow, America's northernmost community, to Cape Lisburne, about 300 miles to the southwest on the Chukchi Sea, as first reported by The Arctic Sounder.
"It's raising a bunch of conservation issues for us," Garlich-Miller said.
The agency's immediate concern is that groups of walruses congregated on land are susceptible to additional human contact, whether a low-flying airplane or a hunter's boat, that could can panic the group, setting off a deadly stampede to the water.
But having animals concentrated on land instead of the vast expanse of the Arctic ice pack also raises stress issues, said Chad Jay, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist.
Walruses on shore may be forced to swim farther to forage, expending more energy. Researchers would expect increased mortality to calves, Jay said, if they try to stay with their mothers during feeding rather than resting on a platform of sea ice over feeding grounds.
"You can imagine access to traditional foraging areas is diminished," Garlich-Miller said. "That is cause for concern."
The Fish and Wildlife Service has no evidence that the walruses have suffered nutritional stress or disease, said Bruce Woods, an agency spokesman.
The agency has received anecdotal information from hunters that some animals appear thin but not emaciated or endangered, Garlich-Miller said. As has happened in the last few years, the agency has receive reports of orphan calves.
Walruses also have been spotted at Kaktovik 325 miles southeast of Barrow on the Beaufort Sea, far east of their normal range, Garlich-Miller said.
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Sadly that the world is stuck in their posture of disbelief, and jokes about issues that will be seen differently very soon.
Pray for Peace, and God Bless You.
What fools they will look when our climates go back to normal, but in the mean time many have made millions of dollars from the people who couldn''t think for themselves and believed a lie..
Yes the climate is changing, it always has done and always will..for goodness sake look back in history where lands which are now covered in ice was once fertile land and the summers were fairly good, or where the land was once ice and are now fertile land, we were taught this in school..valleys were gouged out from the glaciers, and now there is never any ice anywhere in those areas..
Ha, ha. So dang funny. And sadly true.
1. Human effect on Global warming;
2. Human pollution;
3. Industrial pollution
If you do the "right" side will know you are a nut.
Just have to live with it.
If you''re "smart" you will join their crowd and laugh about it ha, ha, ha then repeat the phrase:
"What global warming?"
It''s flat in the sense that what happens in the Artic is no longer ''beyond the horizon'' and out of sight, out of mind. Instead, it''s just down the road and headed our way.
There is no real proof that it''s round.
I think schools should teach both sides of the Earth-shape controversey.
All this science stuff is making me uncomfortable. I%u2019m going back to watching the Fox Noise Channel.