Melting Sea Ice Forces Walruses Ashore

[lazarus]

For the third time recorded the lack of ice in the artic has driven tens of thousands of walruses ashore.

"As the ice decreases, the walrus are abandoning it earlier and earlier. They are having to swim ashore, or to linger on less suitable drift ice for long periods of time."

It has also raised concern from scientists that the animal may be headed for extinction because of climate change.

"The USGS (US Geological Survey), which has been tracking the walrus since June, put the chances of extinction or serious population decline among walrus at 40% by 2095 because of the rapid and widespread loss of summer sea ice due to warming temperatures.

Walrus are not the only animals facing depleted numbers or extinction because of climate change. The Arctic is warming at twice the rest of the world on average, and its seas are growing increasingly acidic because of increased concentrations of carbon dioxide. A new report today warned that 17 species - from tiny plankton to the weighty narwhal - were threatened by the disappearing sea ice and rising seas."

"Increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the ocean was also depleting the walruses' food supply, making the waters too corrosive for the clams and other shellfish that are their staple."

Reports here;
alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/arctic/6770-whats-causing-a-massive-walrus-haulout-in-northwest-alaska
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/13/tech/main6862427.shtml
www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/13/walrus-haul-out-alaska

[rsmith7]

Ka- ching.

Everyone's got to earn a crust £azarus.

[lazarus]

Sept 14, 2010 15:57:37 GMT 1 rsmith7 said:

Ka- ching.

Everyone's got to earn a crust £azarus.

Wow - how can I compete with utter debunking like that? The Royal Society must be quaking.

[rsmith7]

I don't have time to de-bunk every piece of green propaganda you post £azarus.
That's the idea of flooding the web with this crud, isn't it.

It's boring.

[lazarus]

Sept 16, 2010 11:09:44 GMT 1 rsmith7 said:

I don't have time to de-bunk every piece of green propaganda you post £azarus.
That's the idea of flooding the web with this crud, isn't it.

It's boring.

So was this post the utter debunk?

[marchesarosa]

"The media take normal behavior of wildlife and spin it into a phony tragedy in order to spread alarm and despondency amongst the ignorant public? There are, of course, other alternative sources of information out there that are waiting to expose their shenanigans?"

Sea ice gone; walruses come ashore - not unusual

"A story 14 Sept 2010 in the Arizona Daily Star notes that “Tens of thousands of walruses have come ashore in northwest Alaska because the sea ice they normally rest on has melted. Federal scientists say this massive move to shore by walruses is unusual in the United States.” The “federal scientists” in this case are from the Biological arm of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)."

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service alaska.fws.gov/fisheries/mmm/walrus/nhistory.htm
says, however, that this is not unusual:

The Pacific walrus mainly inhabits the shallow continental shelf waters of the Bering and Chukchi seas. The distribution of Pacific walruses varies markedly with the seasons. Virtually the entire population occupies the pack ice in the Bering Sea in the winter months. Through the winter they generally congregate in two areas, one immediately southwest of St. Lawrence Island and the other in outer Bristol Bay. As the Bering Sea pack ice begins to loosen in April, walruses begin to move northward and their distribution becomes less clumped. By late April the distribution extends from Bristol Bay northward to the Bering Strait. During the summer months, as the pack ice continues to recede northward, most of the population migrates into the Chukchi Sea. The largest concentrations are found near the coasts, between 70 degrees North and Pt. Barrow in the east and between Bering Strait and Wrangel Island in the west. Concentrations, mainly of males, are also found on and near terrestrial haulouts in the Bering Sea in Bristol Bay and the northern Gulf of Anadyr throughout the summer. In October the pack ice develops rapidly in the Chukchi Sea, and large herds begin to move southward. Many come ashore on haulouts in the Bering Strait region. Depending on ice conditions, those haulout sites continue to be occupied through November and into December, but with the continuing development of ice, most of them move south of St. Lawrence Island and the Chukchi Peninsula by early to mid-December.
 
The Alaska Fish & Game Department www.wc.adfg.state.ak.us/index.cfm?adfg=refuge.rnd_is
also says that concentrations of walrus on beaches is not unusual. “Best known among the Walrus Islands is Round Island, where each summer large numbers of male walruses haul out on exposed, rocky beaches.” “Walrus return to these haulouts every spring as the ice pack recedes northward, remaining hauled out on the beach for several days between each feeding foray. Up to 14,000 walrus have been counted on Round Island in a single day. However, the number of walrus using the island fluctuates significantly from year to year.”

Even Wikipedia writes:
“The rest of the year (late summer and fall) the walrus tend to form massive aggregations of tens of thousands of individuals on rocky beaches or outcrops. The migration between the ice and the beach can be long distance and dramatic. In late spring and summer, for example, several hundred thousand Pacific Walruses migrate from the Bering sea into the Chukchi sea through the relatively narrow Bering Strait."


"Perhaps the discrepancy between the USGS and other agencies insights in the fact that the USGS has relied on satellite tracking of tagged walrus over a relatively short time frame, whereas the other agencies rely on ground and aircraft observation over much longer periods. And perhaps the fact that the feds are considering putting walrus on the endangered species list has some bearing on the alarm story from the always politically correct biological arm of the USGS. While, I suppose, one could quibble about the frequency of occupation for particular beaches, the fact that these animals occupy beaches from time to time is not at all unusual."

tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2010/09/14/“sea-ice-gone-walruses-come-ashore”-not-unusual/

[abacus9900]

"Researchers aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy during a cruise in the Canada Basin in the summer of 2004 found lone walrus calves swimming far from shore--something never before documented. The sightings suggest that increased polar warming may be forcing mothers to abandon their pups as they follow the rapidly retreating ice northwards. If these observations portray a larger trend, a warmer Arctic may lead to decreases in the walrus population say the scientists whose research was published in the April issue of Aquatic Mammals."


news.mongabay.com/2006/0413-walrus.html

[marchesarosa]

may...if....may

This supposed to be "science"?

[abacus9900]

Sept 22, 2010 16:15:07 GMT 1 marchesarosa said:

may...if....may

This supposed to be "science"?

Yes, because science does not jump to conclusions.