Latest sea ice maps and charts from the Canadian Ice Service show significant ice building quickly along the west coast of Hudson Bay, enough to allow polar bears out to hunt.
Kelsey Eliasson reported from Churchill earlier today that most of the polar bears have moved onto the ice.
Comments Off on Hudson Bay freeze-up update – most polar bears on the ice
Posted in Sea ice habitat
Tagged Derocher, females with cubs, freeze-up, Hudson Bay, Kelsey Eliasson, misinformation, polar bears, PolarBearAlley, sea ice, western hudson bay
Finally, an unbiased first-hand report about Churchill polar bears and freeze-up on Hudson Bay.
Over the last few weeks, biologists Andrew Derocher and Steve Amstrup have been repeating their tired old tales of doom and gloom about the polar bears around Churchill and I’ve done my best to refute the worst of their nonsense.
Figure 1. Polar bear female with cub, 2009, Churchill, Western Hudson Bay. Wikipedia.
To that effort we can now add this report from PolarBearAlley, where Kelsey Eliasson has posted a good-news story about the bears of Cape Churchill and the progress of freeze-up, including sightings of a number of mothers with cubs.
Continue reading
Comments Off on A more optimistic view of Churchill polar bears and Hudson Bay freeze-up
Posted in Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged Amstrup, Churchill, Derocher, extinction, freeze-up, good news, Kelsey Eliasson, mothers with cubs, polar bear, PolarBearAlley, sea ice, Wapusk National Park, western hudson bay
In the last few days, ice coverage on Western Hudson Bay finally dropped below the 30% level that now defines ‘breakup’ for polar bears: a few bears near Churchill started to come ashore late last week but most will stay on the ice until the end of July. That means breakup this year was unofficially July 8th, a week later than average (July 1) for the third year in a row.
Don’t’ tell that to the folks at Polar Bears International, though, because they’re busy telling people that the ice-free season for Western Hudson Bay bears is now longer than it was before the 1990s. What they mean is that the overall trend is toward early breakup dates.
But what they don’t admit is that over the last 44 years, breakup was a full two weeks earlier than average for Western Hudson Bay only six times and only three of those early breakups occurred within the last 13 years. See the calculations below and see what you think.
Comments Off on Breakup date average for W. Hudson Bay is July 1 – this year, it’s late again
Posted in Sea ice habitat
Tagged average breakup date, breakup, Canadian Ice Service, Churchill, early breakup, ice charts, Kelsey Eliasson, late breakup, Polar Bear Provincial Park, prolonged ice-free season, Seth Cherry, Wapusk National Park, western hudson bay
This is a guest post by Kelsey Eliasson, who blogs at Polarbearalley, with his thoughts on the issue of the invasive research involved in polar bear mark-recapture studies around Churchill, Manitoba — which, as you’ll see, is a far different situation than I described for Nunavut (previous posts here, here, and here on this topic. Map below to get you oriented).
Kelsey is a writer, artist and polar bear guide who has spent 14 bear seasons watching the polar bears of Churchill. For five years, he ran Churchill’s monthly newspaper published occasionally, the Hudson Bay Post. Currently, he divides his year between the Yukon, Churchill and, occasionally, Riverton, home of Manitoba’s largest moose statue.
Churchill lies in the Western Hudson Bay (WHB) polar bear subpopulation, governed by the Province of Manitoba, while the community of Arviat, also in the Western Hudson Bay subpopulation, is overseen by the Government of Nunavut – different governments, different rules – as Kelsey points out below.
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Invasive Research is Alive and Well in Canada, by Kelsey Eliasson
The recent post about Foxe Basin was of particular interest to me, as I have been following the growing gap between the north and science for some time now. The stance taken by the Inuit is viewed as an inspiration by the guides over here in Churchill. For many years, we have tried to voice our deep concerns over the levels of handling and drugging that our bears (the Western Hudson Bay population) are subjected to on an annual basis.
This time last year, I tried to raise the topic for discussion after Andrew Derocher announced that ‘everything was on the table’ including feeding bears. At that time, the top polar bear researchers had sat down to discuss options for saving bears – except reducing handling and research – i.e. chasing bears down by helicopter and then shooting them with tranquilizers. Continue reading
Comments Off on Guest Post: Invasive Research is Alive and Well in Canada
Posted in Guest post, Population
Tagged Churchill, Derocher, failed collars, helicopters, invasive research, Kelsey Eliasson, Manitoba, mark-recapture, Nunavut, objections to mark-recapture, polar bear, PolarBearAlley, satellite collars, Stirling, Telazol, tranquilizer drugs, western hudson bay
Freeze-up in Western Hudson Bay is finally underway. It’s no later this year than average, similar to last year.
This rather contradicts the hysterical hue and cry from the tag-team of Polar Bears International (PBI) spokesperson Steven Amstrup and Guardian reporter Suzanne Goldenberg last week during PBI’s “Polar Bear Week” propaganda blitz (see previous posts here, here, and here),
So much for the trend towards later freeze-up dates that PBI says is endangering polar bears in Western Hudson Bay.
On-the-ground observers confirm polar bears are preparing to move out and sea ice maps show the ice is forming very rapidly — see maps and quotes below.
Comments Off on Hudson Bay freeze-up average this year – not late
Posted in Sea ice habitat
Tagged Canadian Ice Service, Churchill, fight for survival, freeze-up, Goldenberg, Hudson Bay, ice development, Kelsey Eliasson, polar bear week, polar bears, Polar Bears International, PolarBearAlley, Steven Amstrup, western hudson bay
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