There is far more ice — and far more concentrated ice — in Canada this year than on this day last year. That’s good news for most polar bear populations.
[And, it turns out, more ice total this year on this date than there has been since 2001!]
I’ve made a composite 2014/2013 ice map for 4 November that tells the story (courtesy daily Canadian Ice Service sea ice maps).
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Comments Off on Polar bear habitat update: what a difference a year makes to sea ice coverage in Canada!
Posted in Sea ice habitat
Tagged Amundsen Gulf, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Canadian Ice Service, Coronation Gulf, Foxe Basin, good news, habitat, ice maps, polar bear, Queen Maud Gulf, sea ice, sea ice concentration, Southern Route
“Blizzards, we had fog — we had to sleep in the helicopter, on the sea ice one night, because we couldn’t fly anywhere,” Markus Dyck, senior polar bear biologist with the GN, told Nunatsiaq News Sept. 5.”
Fog was the theme of polar bear research this summer in Queen Maud Gulf, otherwise known as the M’Clintock Channel polar bear subpopulation region.
The ice has been heavy in that region as well, according to a the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and reported yesterday in another story (“Heavy pack ice in NW Passage ice creates tough conditions this year: Pack ice clogs Queen Maud Gulf“).
For maps showing where M’Clintock Channel and Queen Maud Gulf actually are, see the maps — and more quotes — below.
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Comments Off on M’Clintock polar bear survey’s first year plagued by fog in an area thick with heavy ice
Posted in Population, Sea ice habitat
Tagged biopsy dart, heavy sea ice, helicopter survey, M'Clintock Channel, Markus Dyck, Northwest Passage, NSIDC, polar bear, population estimate, population survey, Queen Maud Gulf, tagging
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