ANCHORAGE, Alaska — As federal marine mammal experts in Alaska scramble to study how global warming will affect walrus, polar bears and ice seals, they warn there are limits to the protections they can provide.
They can restrict hunters, ship traffic and offshore petroleum activity, but they acknowledge there are limited if the animals’ basic habitat — sea ice — disappears every summer.
“Ultimately it’s beyond my scope,” said Joel Garlich-Miller, a walrus expert for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage. “I can’t make ice cubes out there.”
Garlich-Miller spoke after confirming that 3,000 to 4,000 mostly young walrus died this year in stampedes on land on the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea, the body of water touching Alaska and Russia just north of the Bering Strait. Instead of spending the summer spread over sea ice, thousands of walruses were stranded on land in unprecedented numbers for up to three months.
If current ice trends continue, and walrus are based on coastlines every summer, they will put tremendous pressure on nearby foraging areas rather than rich offshore feeding area — sort of like putting all the cattle from a farm into one small pasture, said Tony Fischbach of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Arctic sea ice this summer plummeted to the lowest levels since satellite measurements began in 1979.
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