"They're graceful, but they're not fast," Ray said. "They're not long-distance swimmers."
In recent years, weather conditions have sorely tested that swimming ability. The sea ice edge has retreated farther north during the annual summer thaw, past the edge of the continental shelf and into waters thousands of meters deep where walruses cannot forage.
"It's quite an abrupt change," said U.S. Geological Survey biologist Chad Jay, describing the seafloor's steep drop. "Walruses do all right when they're over the shelf, but in that deeper water it wouldn't take much -- they would spend most of their time swimming to the bottom and not have much time to feed."
A day at the beach may no longer be fun
As sea ice patterns have shifted, the animals have scrambled to adapt. In 2007, scientists were stunned to find thousands of walruses hauling out on beaches in Russia and Alaska, a scene that was repeated in 2009. That year, USGS reported 3,500 animals on the beach at Icy Cape, 140 miles southwest of Barrow. Anecdotal reports from Russia have estimated "tens of thousands" of walruses hauling out on short in Chukotka, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's latest stock assessment.
Scientists do not know whether there is enough food in near-shore waters to support walruses over the long term. They are also concerned because the intensely social -- but easily frightened -- animals gather in larger numbers on land than they would on ice, and in combinations contrary to their normal community structure.
Female walruses and their young normally spend summers apart from males, but that has not been the case when a dearth of sea ice has forced the pinnipeds to seek refuge on land.
"When they haul out on shore, they're in very dense aggregations with adult males and females and young all mixed together," Jay said. "If there are any disturbances on the haul out, and walruses start to flee to the water, the younger animals get trampled and die."
Jay said he believes that's what happened in Icy Cape last year, when 131 walruses -- many of them young animals -- died. Similarly deadly stampedes have also been reported in Russia. Such reports helped prompt the Interior Department to consider protecting the Pacific walrus under the Endangered Species Act. The agency is expected to render its preliminary verdict next month.
Meanwhile, Ray said he's concerned that the diminishing spring and summer ice levels -- and the changing mix of different types of sea ice -- will impede walrus reproduction. Females walruses mate, give birth, nurse their young and molt on the ice, sticking with each pup for up to two years.
"The ice is forming about six weeks later in the fall and melting about six weeks earlier in the spring," he said. "That takes three months off the ice season. ... In the spring, with all those pups around, they're losing their ice."
Conventional wisdom thaws
But it's not just the walruses that are affected by the unpredictable Arctic ice. For hunters, the changes have made venturing out on ice or in small hunting boats more dangerous and more expensive, with less certain hope of returning home with walrus carcasses.
"As sea ice recedes, you're traveling further to find good ice," said Vera Metcalf, executive director of the Nome, Alaska-based Eskimo Walrus Commission. "That's a concern not only for safety but because it's very expensive to get prepared for any kind of hunting out in the waters. A lot of freight is shipped by airplane to the communities, and fuel is very expensive."
To help hunters in Alaska's coastal communities adapt to those changes, scientists with the University of Alaska and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have partnered up with village elders on a new type of climate forecast.
See what we're tweeting about
7 Comments
Add CommentAdapt or perish. The environment will change. It changes faster because of human's population growth curve.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisC'mon, where are the dimwits? Where are the deniers? C'mon, tell us your hypotheses! Explain to us how a shrinkage in Arctic ice is actually an increase, like you've been lying about in Antarctica.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWill you be so cavalier when it is humans turn to "adapt or perish?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thissisko says, "It changes faster because of human's population growth curve."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this****************
Are you trying to tell us that the population growth in the extreme far north is increasing and encroaching on the walrus?
World-wide population growth does tend to foster world-wide climatic problems, but it is a simplistic response to the problem.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is conceivable, however unlikely, that we could continue to grow as a species for quite some time. I don't mean to imply that that would be a good thing. There are ancient, current and emerging technologies (in the sense of methods - not silicon etc) that could save our bacon.
I'm afraid, though, that since these ways of doing things would upset the profit margins of 'the powers that be' we'll never see them applied in time, or on the scale necessary, to do the job.
Oh Well...
At the moment, the core of our discussions should be re-defining the human activities/existence in nature. It is obvious that romantic democracy system, which puts the humanity over everything has eventually failed. We need an amendmend in Constituton with following clauses:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1- Nature has absolute sovereignty and has the right to sustain.
2- Every person has the right to defend the Rights of Nature in Courts.
3- Waste producing human activities (including urbanization) can only be allowed if waste stabilization is provided in 20 years maximum.
If USA is not going to provoke above consciousness in the world, who is going to do it?
@lakota- I am stating that the number of humans on the planet overall are consuming resources and producing wastes at ever increasing rates per person. The per person consumption growth in consumption will continue to rise. If more is not done to eliminate worldwide population growth there will be consequences to the environment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this