Walruses as polar bear prey and sea ice were on my mind last night and I remembered that we DO have detailed sea ice information for 1978 and 1972 – from the sea ice atlas put together by University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), which has ice concentration maps for Alaska going back to 1850 — and for every year up to 2013 (reported previously here).
Chukchi Sea walrus, June 2014. US Fish and Wildlife Service.
I’ve copied some of the ice maps below.
It is clear that ice was available close to Wrangel Island in 1972 when walruses chose to haul out on the island in huge numbers. And in 1978, there was ice present to the north of the walrus herd, but they had moved away from the ice to get to St. Lawrence Island, where they hauled out in large numbers.
This means it is more likely that food resources were the issue, not sea ice.
UPDATE OCTOBER 3 2014:
See another interesting follow-up elsewhere: Walrus inconsistencies
Continue reading
You must be logged in to post a comment.