Polar bears forced into open ocean as ice melts, federal observers say
Published Thursday, August 21, 2008
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE -- Federal wildlife monitors spotted nine polar bears in one day swimming in open ocean off Alaska's northwest coast, and environmental groups say the event is a strong signal that diminished sea ice brought on by warming has put U.S. bears at risk of drowning or dying from effects of fatigue.
"The impact of global warming is brutal and tragic for polar bears," said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. "The only way to limit the number of bears that will drown and starve is to reduce greenhouse gas pollution immediately."
The number spotted Saturday on long-distance swims in the Chukchi Sea was higher than has been seen in similar surveys.
Polar bears spend most of their lives on sea ice, which they use as a platform to hunt their primary prey, ringed seals. Polar bears are powerful swimmers, but are at increased risk of drowning in high wind and rough seas, Siegel said.
Conditions last weekend, Siegel said, were similar to those that preceded drownings in September 2004. Four polar bear carcasses were spotted in the Beaufort Sea after a storm, and federal scientists extrapolated that others probably died.
Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in May declared polar bears a threatened species because of an alarming loss of summer sea ice in recent decades and climate models that indicate the trend will continue.
Summer sea ice last year shrunk to a record low, about 1.65 million square miles in September, nearly 40 percent less than the long-term average between 1979 and 2000 and most climate modelers predict a continued downward spiral, possibly with an Arctic Ocean that's ice free during summer months by 2030 or sooner.
Conservation groups fear that one consequence of less ice will be more energy-sapping, long-distance swims by polar bears trying to reach feeding, mating or denning areas.
The nine bears were spotted on a flight by a marine contractor, Science Applications International Corp., hired for the Minerals Management Service in advance of future offshore oil development.
The MMS in February leased 2.76 million acres within an offshore area slightly smaller than Pennsylvania.
Observers Saturday were looking for whales, especially bowheads, said project director Janet Clark, but they also record walrus and polar bears.
The bears ranged from 15 to 65 miles off shore. Many were swimming north, Clark said.
Shallow water over the continental shelf is the most biologically productive for seals, but pack ice in recent years has receded far beyond the shelf. Polar bears have had the choice of staying with the pack ice hundreds of miles off shore or remaining on land where they cannot hunt seals, Siegel said.
Satellite data Saturday showed the main body of pack ice about 400 miles off shore with one ribbon about 100 miles off Alaska's coast, said Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Clark said the flight was a snapshot of marine mammals and their origin and destination could not be known without radio collar monitoring.
"To go out there and say they were going from this point to this point would be complete speculation," Clark said.
Steven Amstrup, senior polar bear scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Anchorage, said the bears could have been on a patch of remaining sea ice that broke up northwest of Alaska's coast.
"The bears that had been on that last bit of ice that remained over shallow shelf waters, are now swimming either toward land or toward the rest of the sea ice, which is a considerable distance north," he said in an e-mail response to questions.
It probably is not a big deal for a polar bear in good condition to swim 10 or 15 miles, Amstrup said, but swims of 50 to 100 miles are probably a different matter energetically.
"We have some observations of bears swimming into shore when the sea ice was not visible on the horizon," he said. "In some of these cases, the bears arrive so spent energetically, that they literally don't move for a couple days after hitting shore."
Only further research can tell the effect of greater swimming distances on polar bear populations, he said.
"Our impression is that this is one of the increasing risk factors that bears are facing as the sea ice habitat where they need to forage is disappearing, and such risks were considered in the recent projections we made regarding future welfare of polar bears," he said. "Polar bears can swim quite well, but they are not aquatic animals. Their home is on the surface of the ice."
A spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund said that as Arctic ice recedes, the scene from last weekend likely will be repeated.
"To find so many animals at sea in a single survey, on a single day is extremely significant," said the WWF's Geoff York.
A 2005 study in Alaska's Beaufort Sea by MMS researchers Charles Monnett and Jeffrey S. Gleason speculated that extended open-water swimming could be an important source of natural mortality. They wrote the paper after observers spotted the four floating carcasses in September 2004.
In September aerial surveys from 1987 to 2003, 315 bears had been observed and only 12 were seen in open water during those 16 years.
During aerial surveys in September 2004, 55 polar bears were seen, including 51 swimming in open water and the four dead animals.
Observers have no indication of the fate of the nine polar bears seen swimming Saturday. Stormy weather kept the Chukchi wildlife flight grounded Sunday.
Community Discussion
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Here we go again. The Global Warming myth continues.
What can I do to increase my carbon footprint to help Global Warming?
We did have a lousy summer afterall.
To increase your carbon footprint buy a Prius - they only last about 100,000 miles or so and cause about 3 times the environmental impact of a Hummer H3. See for yourself-
http://clubs.ccsu.edu/Recorder/editorial...
That should help warm things up...poor polar bears.
I was just being sarcastic in my previous comment by the way.
However,I am tired of hearing about Global Warming and how it's beeing shoved down our throats. How long has the weather been monitored? 100 years or so (just guessing) vs billions of years of weather happening on this planet? And didn't we have an iceage about 10,000 years ago? What caused that? Global Warming caused by the methane from mammoth dung? Gimme a break! Environmentalist sure know how to make fear work in their favor.
Very interesting article 'MrGreen'. Didn't know that.
Thanks.
IS there a way to put platforms out so that the polar bears have a place, even if it isn't ice? Seems that would be a way to handle the polar bears until another ice age begins .... or until another way to solve the crisis is found.
I recently learned that myself. Good to know we have so many Prius owners in town helping kill the planet. LOL
More on polar bears -
http://robertd.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/...
http://robertd.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/...
You know, I'll bet the rent money there were "MrGreen" and "vodp" types running around in 1910 saying, "What's this myth about passenger pigeons going extinct?" (Once estimated at over 20 billion birds, it only took about 100 years to do the trick.) And they probably had a few around when the Steller Sea Cow went extinct from overhunting by whalers in the late 1700's, Alaska's first (but not only) extinction due to humans. Then, we have musk ox becoming extinct in Alaska before 1900. I'm sure "MrGreen" and "vodp" types were out there raving about environmentalists. (The only reason we presently have herds in Alaska is due to re-introduction in the 1930's.)
Alaska has seen other species extinctions due to human overhunting and other human causes. Now, we see our polar bears heading in that direction. Despite overwhelming proof not only from decades of data acquisition and study but also by the simple method of consulting with Native elders, we see the arctic ice cap is disappearing. Not only will we see polar bears go extinct in our lifetimes in Alaska but there is a good possibility walrus will follow along as they depend on the sea ice as well.
Polar Bears swim, so what is the big deal?
dobieman
I am not talking about overhunting or overfishing, I even agree with you on that.
I am talking about the weather and that natural weather cycles and other natural phenomenon take place and have happened before.
vodp...as for your comments about the weather cycles there is a massive difference between natural cycles and human-created cycles, the latter being rather new. As a longtime (over 40 years) student of paleontology, I can attest to not only the fact that even a "rapid" change such as the Ice Age took thousands of years to come to an end. This versus the past 50 or so years in which we have seen a relatively rapid increase in the average temperature around the world, decreasing ice caps, increasing sea levels, the vast majority of glaciers receding, and the observations that Greenland is losing a significant amount of its ice cover. Weather records have been kept in the U.S. since colonial times. If you will recollect Ben Franklin was quite the amateur meteorologist along with other notables of the times. In addition, through vegetational changes within the past few centuries climate changes can be tracked.
What's interesting is to look at graphs of a great deal of data (ice cores which show pollen changes and captured gases, for instance) and see a sharp rise in airborne pollutants starting right around 1900 when industry was really beginning to gear up with factories pouring out unrestricted pollutants by the tons everyday. That graph continues to rise somewhat slowly until the late 1970's when it begins to show even sharper increases. All of this data is easily accessed and general conclusions about what it means in terms of climate change have been accepted by the vast majority of scientists throughout the world.
James Hanson, who formerly worked several years for NOAA, began predicting these climate changes over 20 years ago and he has proven surprisingly accurate. It is his opinion we have about a decade in which to do something about it before they become irreversible. And sitting around ranting and raving about environmentalists while most studiously ignoring the facts all around you is probably not what he had in mind.
Either we do something ASAP...or we learn to live in the morass the Interior will become when the permafrost (which is already measurably disappearing) really vanishes on us. Have fun driving your Hummers over those "roads"!
This sounds like good news. Sure better than having the bears descend upon the villages. Especially since the kooks have made it illegal to shoot them.
We are going to miss you, bears. You've had a good run but all good things must come to an end. We will, sniff, remember you always.
Sniff, good by, sniff.
dobieman - I'm curious, have YOU done anything ASAP to save these bears?
Have you reverted back to a semi-primitive lifestyle emitting absolutely NO carbon? Thought not. My point mr. dobieman, is this - alarmists have ALWAYS existed. Period. And I will not change my lifestyle based on COMPUTER PREDICTIONS. Period.
I'm gonna watch 'The day after tomorrow' tonight. Haha
21,000 to 27,000 Polar Bears inhabit the circumpolar north in Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the Svalbard archipelago. Studies have shown that the bears are experiencing PCB (polychlorinated biphenylus) levels that are damaging their immune systems and effect their endocrine system. It is not only the loss of ice that are effecting these animals. Estimates are if the trends continue the polar bear could be extinct by the end of this century. This is not only an Alaskan problem but a circumpolar problem that is being studied in mutual cooperation among all these countries. Whatever one thinks about warming, the reality is, these bears are facing some real problems in survival. One would think that Alaskan would want to see efforts made to make sure the population continues and grows to an even larger extent, despite what you think of global warming. After all it is the one bear that is unique to the Arctic regions.
I don't and never would own a Hummer. Just showing "greens" how UNgreen their little Prius is.
Ah, yes, Day After Tomorrow - what a thrilling scare tactic.
Melting morass or instant Ice Age? Very confusing.
And don't forget "The Eleventh Hour' with what's-his-name, Leo?
Another scary plot. I'll bet that A-hole hasn't stopped puking CO2.
Darn polar bear killer.
Shame on anyone who uses the Earth's resources.
Shame on us, after all, we aren't part of nature. We were just placed here by the "Creator". Or... did "Gaia" give birth to us?
Guess we'll never know...but in the meantime, choose a side, mmkay?
And then practice what you preach. If CO2 bad, stop consuming - pretty simple. If sin bad - got to church, also pretty simple. But leave me the H E double L alone. I don't want Christian laws and I don't want Ecofreak laws either. Moderation please. Coexistence...
And if anyone researches the "passenger pigeon", you would find out that the disease carrying Europeans wiped out "native" populations, leading to a MAJOR increase in the pigeons numbers at first. Less competition for food. Then, as we used up some forest land, they took to grain fields, where farmers started killing them.
THEN, the pigeons were wiped out later by HUNTING for the cheap meat.
Not really comparable to Carbon Emissions and Global Warming, but whatever.
We can control hunting practices. Which is what led to the Pigeons extinction. So if skeptics of hunting for cheap meat had been around then, well, maybe we'd still have Passenger Pigeons around. And the most rapid decline actually happened in a 20 year timespan, not "over 100 years". Hunters. Thanx.
And let's not forget that roughly 700 polar bears are shot each year. By hunters. Are we due for a repeat of the pigeon?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_P...
http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/p...
The pack ice has moved off shore due to a shift in the normal wind patterns.Look it up on the NOAA site.
If we would have went green sooner, maybe we'd still have wooly mammoths, cave bears, giant sloths, and saber toothed tigers running around.
AkRascal,
Bears swim. Lots of animals swim, but when they get tired, if there is no place for them to recover, if they can't float, they drown.
Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah
Blah Blah Blah Blah, Then all the water Froze!
only coca-cola .....shurp ahhhh!
When are you enviromental idiots going to stop writing all this propaganda & very misleading crap about global warming? Give it a rest!! Do you have any clue how stupid your "religion" is? Or how stupid all you "educated idiots" OF EVOLUTION & your stupid "Al GoreRON" followers sound? If you want to believe this crap, that fine, enjoy. But don't try to drag the rest of us as your moonies. PERSONLY I LOOK FORWARD TO JET-SKIING THE NORTH POLE WITH THE OIL WE ARE GOING TO DRILL IN ANWR & EVERYWHERE ELSE YOU DON'T WANT US TO DRILL..
Please stop preaching these lies to our children & GRANDCHILDREN. And I am sick and tired of MY tax money being spent IN this FOOLISH way OF THINKING.
"THERE IS NOTHING GOING ON, AS FAR AS THE WEATHER GOES, WARMING, (OR COOLING AS IT HAS BEEN DOING THIS SUMMER), BUT THERE IS NOTHING HAPPENING THAT HASN'T ALREADY HAPPENED ON THIS PLANET.
EITHER YOU REFUSE TO SAY WE WERE "CREATED BY GOD" OR YOU BELIVEVE IN EVOLUTION, WHICH THE TEACHINGS ARE EXACT OPPOSITE OF CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS. OR MAYBE YOU ALL ARE JUST PLAIN STUPID....THERE IS NO FIX FOR THAT!! GLOBAL WARMING? WHAT A BUNCH OF FOOLS.... ONE MORE TIME....LISTEN CLOSELY.....THE WHOLE WORLD WAS TROPICAL BEFORE THE FLOOD!!!!
STOP TRYING TO PLAY GOD. THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD. THERE IS NONE OTHER LIKE "HIM". "HIS" JOB IS NOT AVAILABLE, IT WILL NEVER BE AVAILABLE!!! BUT FOR YOU, YOUR AL GORERON MOONIES & YOUR ANTI-GOD BELIEFS & ALL THE FALSE TEACHINGS YOU IDIOTS PUSH, ALL YOU THAT THINK YOU KNOW SOMETHING THAT GOD DOESN'T KNOW. OR YOU THINK THERE IS NO GOD & YOU ARE IN CHARGE, WELL THERE WILL BE A VERY TROPICAL PLACE FOR YOU ALL TO HANG OUT FOR ETERNALY. ITS CALLED HELL. HOPE YOU GOT ICE CUBES!!!
STOP PREACHING THIS "HERESY"!!!
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