There’s abundant sea ice in the Bering, Greenland and Labrador Seas, although less than usual in the Barents Sea because strong winds drove the ice north. Any time there is a bit less sea ice than usual the catastrophists begin caterwauling but this time the rhetoric is a little different.
Comments Off on Low mid-winter polar bear habitat in Barents Sea spawns warnings of more human-bear conflicts
Posted in Polar bear attacks, Sea ice habitat
Tagged attacks, conflicts, habitat, interactions, polar bear, problem bears, sea ice, winter
The 234 or so polar bears inhabiting the SE tip of Greenland, said to be genetically and ecologically unique because they are “surviving without ice“, have been experiencing sea ice formation along the shoreline this month just like other bears across the Arctic. Recall that shorefast ice formation attracts seals in the fall, which polar bears hunt successfully, and the following spring (April/May) provide a platform for ringed seals to give birth to their pups, which polar bears eat with gay abandon.
The photo above was taken by Kristin Laidre in March 2016: a bear this fat at the end of winter (i.e. before ringed seals are born in the spring) is living in productive habitat.
Continue readingComments Off on Polar bears of SE Greenland get shorefast ice necessary to hunt seals: not so unique after all
Posted in Advocacy, Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged ecology, fat bears, fjord, glacier-front, habitat, hunting, polar bear, SE Greenland, sea ice, shorefast ice
Not even three weeks after the yearly minimum of sea ice extent was reached this year, new shorefast ice is already forming off the coast of Siberia, which is critical fall hunting habitat for polar bears.
So, not only was this year’s sea ice extent for September at the very lowest extreme of predicted levels for late summer, given ever-increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, new ice seems to be forming earlier in the fall as well, which bodes well for winter ice formation. It’s looking to me like the decade-long increasing trend of September ice extent since 2012 (see below) may indicate a change more biologically relevant to ice-dependent Arctic animals than the zero trend since 2007.
Comments Off on New polar bear hunting habitat forming already along the coast of the Laptev Sea: A new trend?
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged CO2, fall, habitat, hunting, ice formation, Laptev Sea, new ice, polar bear, sea ice, Siberia, summer, trends
The average sea ice cover at the end of March is the metric used to compare ‘winter’ ice to previous years or decades, not the single-day date of ‘most’ ice. This year, March ended with 14.6 mkm2 of sea ice, most of which (but not all) is critical polar bear habitat. Ice charts showing this are below.
But note that ice over Hudson Bay, which is an almost-enclosed sea used by thousands of polar bears at this time of year, tends to continue to thicken from March into May: these two charts for 2020 show medium green becoming dark green, indicating ice >1.2 m thick, even as some areas of open water appear.
Comments Off on Sea ice average for March is the metric used to compare to previous winters
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged habitat, hunting, March, polar bear, sea ice, seals, winter
US National Snow and Ice Data Center says the Arctic maximum extent for this winter peaked at 14.88 mkm2 on 25 February, but in fact this amount of ice coverage lasted for at least two weeks (22 February – 8 March), with very slight variation. Just a little something they all left out of their announcements, for some reason.
Comments Off on Arctic sea ice maximum extent was present for at least two weeks at about 14.9 million km2
Posted in Sea ice habitat
Tagged habitat, maximum extent, NSIDC, peak, polar bear, sea ice, winter
Ahead of International Polar Bear Day (27 February) this year, polar bear habitat is as abundant as it has been for decades. This is a tough time for polar bears, many of which will be finding it hard to find seals to eat, as newborn seals won’t be an available food resource for about a month in most areas. Thin and hungry bears are dangerous.
Sea ice charts below for the Arctic as a whole and by region.
Continue readingComments Off on Mid-winter polar bear sea ice habitat is abundant & within range of long-term average
Posted in Sea ice habitat
Tagged habitat, polar bear, sea ice, winter
Sea ice is finally starting to form along the western shore of Hudson Bay, lagging well behind ice formation in the rest of the Arctic. Oddly, however, last year it was just the opposite: some WH bears were able to start hunting as early as 31 October (see photo below) while ice formation lagged behind in the Chukchi and Barents Seas.
Comments Off on Late freeze-up for W. Hudson Bay polar bears at odds with ice conditions elsewhere
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged 2020 vs. 2021, fall feeding, habitat, polar bear, sea ice, shorefast ice
Winds primarily cause the apparent sea ice ‘breakup’ in late spring through the widening of persistent polynyas and shore leads. This year the development of critical open water areas in Canada (which are important feeding areas for polar bears) is on track with previous years in most areas, although there is a lot of year-to-year variability.
Several prominent polynas also opened up along the Russian coast and Northeast Greenland: see the entire Arctic condition at 7 June 2021 below, courtesy NSIDC:
Comments Off on Polar bear habitat in Canada at the first week of June sees widening of critical polynyas
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged breakup, habitat, melt, polar bear, polynya, sea ice, spring feeding, wind
Sea ice formation is ahead of usual in some regions and behind in others but overall, sea ice habitat is abundant enough for this time of year for virtually all polar bears across the Arctic to be back out on the sea ice hunting seals.
Overall, there was more sea ice at 24 November 2020 than there was on the same date in 2016, which was the last year that a number of polar bear subpopulations were surveyed, including Western and Southern Hudson Bay, Southern Beaufort, Chukchi Sea (Crockford 2019, 2020), see graph below from NSIDC Masie:
Northern Hemisphere sea ice at 24 November, 2016-2020.
UPDATE 27 November 2020: Problem bear report published today (for week 13, Nov. 16-22) has been added below.
Comments Off on Polar bear habitat update for late November
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged Chukchi Sea, Davis Strait, freeeze-up, habitat, Hudson Bay, Kara Sea, pack ice, polar bear, sea ice
This year, the last collared Western Hudson Bay polar bear to leave the ice left as late, or later, than the last collared bear did in 2009 (which was an unusually late breakup year) and so far, all bears spotted have been in good physical condition despite inhabiting one of the most southern regions of the Arctic. All the while, sea ice experts have been hand-wringing about low Arctic sea ice –– in general and as polar bear habitat.
A female with two yearling cubs on the shore of Wakusp National Park, Western Hudson Bay on 24 August 2020. Taken via livecam from almost a mile away.
Comments Off on Amid crying over low Arctic ice, W Hudson Bay polar bears leave ice as late as 2009
Posted in Conservation Status, Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged breakup, good years, habitat, Hudson Bay, polar bear, sea ice, summer, western hudson bay
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