Pacific Walruses Continue to Wait for ice in Point Lay

Tens of thousands of walruses have beached themselves near a remote village in northern Alaska. Some biologists think it's because the sea ice melted early -- leaving them no place to rest.

It's the end of summer along the North Slope of Alaska and in the tiny Inupiat village of Point Lay they wait for the ice to return.

The tundra is usually already frozen by now - with snow on the ground and slush ice forming along the Chukchi Sea, but instead, children are playing in the lagoon barefoot.

"We always thought the Arctic would be cold, but scientists are telling us there's global warming going on and… I believe them,” said Leo Ferreira, Point Lay Village Tribal president.

Ferreira doesn't mind that the bone-chilling 80 below winter temperatures are taking their time getting here, but he's worried about the village's most recent residents who need the ice to survive.

The pacific walrus, who normally rest on ice sheets out in the sea, have instead hauled out by the thousands in Point Lay (see map at right) to nap. The walruses are unable to find refuge even on a small piece of sea ice, because scientists say, most of it has melted early.

"What this is telling us is that there's a continuing pattern of sea ice loss in the Arctic. We may be looking at summers with no sea ice at all or little to speak of in 20 or perhaps 30 years," said Mark Serreze, National Snow Ice Data Center.

In fact, a new report shows it's the third lowest Arctic ice level in over 30 years.

Walruses need that ice to rest on in between feeding. Much like the polar bear they can't swim forever.

"We suspect that this is going to cost the walrus more to make a living when they have to commute from a coastal resting spot out to the foraging grounds, than what it would cost them to simply roll off the ice and feed directly beneath them," said wildlife biologist Anthony Fischbach.

That's not the only worry. With upwards of 20,000 walruses crammed so tightly together, a stampede of mothers and their newborn calves could be devastating to the walrus population.

"Anything can spook 'em from a polar bear, a brown bear, a dog, a man, boat going by, an airplane going over," said Point Lay Fire Chief Bill Tracey.

Last year, Tracy says, not far away, more than a hundred walruses trampled each other to death trying to flee back into the water. So until the ice comes back, strict limits are now in place regarding how close people can get to the walruses. There's even a no fly zone over the beach, something Point Lay residents are happy to see.

"What we have now, we have to protect what's there because maybe in the next 10 years we won't have any,” said resident Sophie Henry.

This comes at the same time the U.S. Fish and Wildlife is considering extending some type of protection to the pacific walrus, which scientists think are on the path to extinction by the end of the century

Source:
KTUU News,"Pacific Walruses Continue to Wait for ice in Point Lay", accessed September 21, 2010