Two recent sightings of polar bears along the north shore of Newfoundland are a reminder that sea ice is still a prominent feature of the Davis Strait polar bear subpopulation landscape at this time of year.
A polar bear was sighted in the community of La Scie, northern Newfoundland Monday, 27 April (pictured above, swimming in the harbour), while another landed in the town of Fogo, on Fogo Island, last week (see maps below).
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Comments Off on Polar bear season for Newfoundland residents still going strong, recent sightings confirm
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged Davis Strait, Fogo, Gray, La Scie, Labrador, Newfoundland, polar bear, sea ice, sightings, spring, swimming
Polar bear habitat in the eastern Bering Sea has expanded since the official spring “maximum extent” was called for late February, and Davis Strait sea ice is tied for 2nd highest since 1971 for this week. Both regions have healthy polar bear populations and spring conditions suggest this will continue into this year.
Although the melt season is underway, as of yesterday (22 April, Julian day 112) overall Arctic sea ice extent (Fig. 1) was higher than it was on the same date in 2014, 2007, and 2004 (see also Fig. 2). Despite the record low extent in February (Fig. 3), that pessimists at Polar Bears International suggested was relevant to polar bear heath and survival, I showed that was misleading.
Figure 1. Sea ice extent at 22 April (Julian day 112) for 2015, at 13.976 mkm2, was well within 2 standard deviations and higher than 2007 (shown), as well as higher than 2004 and 2014 (not shown – see it for yourself here). Click to enlarge.
Sea ice maps and charts tell the story of current polar bear habitat throughout the Arctic.
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Comments Off on Melt season update – Bering Sea ice abundant & Davis Strait ice 2nd highest since 1971
Posted in Sea ice habitat
Tagged arctic sea ice, Barents Sea, Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, Davis Strait, Newfoundland, Regehr, Rode, sea ice extent, spring maximum
Arctic ice extent (at 14.1mkm2) on 15 April, was virtually identical to 2014 on that date, and higher than 2006. But the record goes to Davis Strait, which recorded the highest ice extent since 1971 for the week of April 16, while the waters of Eastern Newfoundland to the south (where most harp seals have their pups) had the third highest ice extent since 1969. Lots of fat baby seals are just what polar bears need at this time of year.
Comments Off on Spring ice alarm deflated – 2015 ice now as high as 2014 & Davis Strait highest since 1971
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged Barents Sea, Canadian Ice Service, Davis Strait, harp seal, Newfoundland, NSIDC, polar bear, sea ice, seals, spring sea ice
Prognosis, excellent. The sea ice hunting platform that polar bears require is everywhere and Davis Strait ice extent is the fourth-highest it’s ever been at this time of year.
The spring feeding period is a messy, brutal business – many cute baby seals will die as polar bears consume 2/3rds of their yearly food supply over the next few months (April – June/early July), while sea ice is abundant.
That leaves the remaining 1/3 of their energetic needs to be met over the following 9 months (most of it in late fall (late November/December) and hardly any during the summer months, regardless of whether the bears are on land or out on the sea ice) or over the winter. Continue reading
Comments Off on Superb sea ice conditions for polar bears worldwide during their critical feeding period
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged breakup, Davis Strait, habitat, harp seals, Hudson Bay, hunting platform, polar bears, ringed seals, sea ice, sea ice extent, seals, spring ice maximum
A new paper by polar bear biologists (Rode et al. 2015) argues that terrestrial (land-based) foods are not important to polar bears now and will not be in the future – a conclusion I totally agree with – but they miss the point entirely regarding the importance of this issue.
Whatever food polar bears consume in the summer – whether they are on land or on the ice – doesn’t really matter. What matters is how many fat-rich seals they can consume between March and June each year. The fat put on in late winter/spring from gorging on baby seals carries polar bears over the summer, no matter where they spend it.
USGS polar bear biologist Karyn Rode and colleagues (press release here) have tried to frame this issue as one about future survival of polar bears in the face of declining sea ice. However, the fact that polar bears in the Chukchi Sea and Southern Davis Strait are thriving despite dramatic declines in summer sea ice (aka an extended open-water season), proves my point and disproves their premise. Bears in these regions are doing extremely well – contrary to all predictions – because they have had abundant baby seals to eat during the spring (see here and here).
Comments Off on Polar bear consumption of terrestrial foods – new paper misses the point
Posted in Advocacy, Conservation Status, Life History
Tagged Amstrup, Arctic, bird colonies, caribou, Chukchi Sea, climate change, Davis Strait, East Greenland, geese, global warming, goose eggs, habitat, InsideScience, polar bear, red herring, Rode, sea ice, sea ice loss, seabird eggs, Svalbard, terrestrial foods, us geological survey, USGS
Perhaps the folks on the platform couldn’t see it, but sea ice wasn’t far off on Monday when a polar bear came to visit the Hibernia oil platform southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland. See the map below (composite from Heritage Newfoundland and Canadian Ice Service):
UPDATE 26 March 2015: Ian Stirling has added his expert comment on this incident, see below.
UPDATE 28 March 2015: Newfoundland’s Director of Wildlife has commented on this incident, see below.
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Comments Off on Polar bear visiting Hibernia oil platform off Newfoundland was not far from sea ice
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged Davis Strait, Hibernia, Newfoundland, oil platform, Pagano, polar bear, sea ice, sea ice maximum, swimming
Polar bear habitat for the last week of March is well above average in eastern Canada for the second year in a row. The very low extent of ice in the Sea of Okhotsk – which has contributed strongly to the low maximum extent this year – is irrelevant to our discussion, since no polar bears live there.
There is a bit more concentrated ice around Svalbard than last year (or in 2012), although ice in the Barents Sea in general is still below average due to the state of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). The state of the AMO and its effects on Barents Sea polar bear sea ice habitat has nothing to do with global warming: it’s a cycle that has been documented for centuries (Miles et al. 2014).
Still, there is plenty enough sea ice for polar bear hunting: this is the beginning of the critical feeding time for all polar bears (see here and here), but especially for the survival of new cubs-of-the-year, so I have a few words about Western Hudson Bay cubs below.
Have a look for yourself.
Update: Added 20 March 2015, comparison maps from Cryosphere Today for 2006 vs. 2015.
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Comments Off on Polar bear habitat update – more spring sea ice around Svalbard than 2014 & 2012
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged AMO, Barents Sea, Churchill, cubs of the year, Davis Strait, Norwegian Ice Service, polar bear, sea ice, spring ice conditions, spring ice maximum, Svalbard, western hudson bay
I’ve not written much about this subpopulation before but with the flurry of interest over “weakened” penis bones and toxic chemicals, I thought it was time to remedy the situation.
East Greenland Scorsby Sound March 2011 on Kap Tobin, Rune Dietz, press photo
Comments Off on East Greenland polar bears – said to be the most polluted but appear to be doing just fine
Posted in Life History, Pollution, Population, Sea ice habitat
Tagged contaminants, Davis Strait, diet, East Greenland, harp seals, hooded seals, movements, PBSG, PCBs, persistent organic pollutants, Persistent organohalogen contaminants, POC, polar bears, pollutants, POP, population assessments, seal pups, threatened, toxins, West Ice
This week, Arctic sea ice in Canada, where 2/3 of the world’s polar bears live, had more sea ice than was present in the early 1970s. Globally, the ice is spitting-distance close to the 1981-2010 average calculated by the NSIDC for this date – which means lots of winter/spring hunting habitat for polar bears.
This is the peak of the polar bear birthing season (both in the wild and in zoos.) Newborns will be snug in maternity dens built by their mothers onshore or on the sea ice; the rest of the population will be out on the ice.
Regional ice charts going back to the late 1960s and early 1970s for this week show even more surprises — have a look.
Comments Off on Polar bear habitat – more Arctic sea ice in Canada this week than in early 1970s
Posted in Sea ice habitat
Tagged baffin bay, Davis Strait, Eastern Beaufort, Eastern Canada, Hudson Bay, ice extent, polar bear, polar bear habitat, polar bears in winter, sea ice, Southern Beaufort, Western Arctic
Sea ice development for this date is well above average on Hudson Bay – even more so than last week – making three years in a row of average-to-above average ice habitat available to polar bears in early December (see last week’s ice summary here). Coverage for the week of 11 December from 1971 to 2104 below (from Canadian Ice Service):
More maps below (from CIS and NSIDC), see others here.
Comments Off on Hudson Bay sea ice well above average – excellent early December polar bear habitat
Posted in Sea ice habitat
Tagged Canadian Ice Service, Churchill, Davis Strait, December, Hudson Bay, National Snow and Ice Data Center, polar bear habitat, polar bears, polar bears in winter, problem bears, sea ice, western hudson bay
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