Walrus Converge On Alaskan Beach As Sea Ice Declines

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Walrus Converge On Alaskan Beach As Sea Ice Declines

By DAN JOLING
10/01/13

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An estimated 10,000 walrus unable to find sea ice over shallow Arctic Ocean water have come ashore on Alaska's northwest coast.

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday photographed walrus packed onto a beach on a barrier island near Point Lay, an Inupiat Eskimo village 300 miles southwest of Barrow and 700 miles northwest of Anchorage.

The walrus have been coming to shore since mid-September. The large herd was spotted during NOAA's annual arctic marine mammal aerial survey, an effort conducted with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency that conducts offshore lease sales.

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[flacaltenn]

Is this supposed to be a tear-jerker or science?

Walrus

In the summer of 2012, the scientists took a huge step. They installed their first cameras along the Chukchi Sea near the village of Point Lay, Alaska. Dr. Lori Polasek hoped that, if the season's sea ice melted past the edge of the walruses' normal range, the animals might choose to haulout on land in this area. She had good reason to expect this, because walrus had hauled out near Point Lay twice in recent summers.

Since the beach in this area is so flat, the team could not rely on cliffs or other natural features to provide good vantage points for their cameras. Instead, they constructed a tower. The tower was designed so that local volunteers could rotate the camera angles depending on where along the beach the walrus had hauled out. However, the team didn't get any data from the Point Lay cameras in 2012. This time, it wasn't because the cameras failed to work. Instead, sea ice remained available in that area, so no walrus hauled out at the site this year.

So why didn't walrus haul out on land in Alaska if there was less sea ice in the Arctic than ever before? It all comes down to the distribution of ice. Although there was less ice overall in 2012, patchy areas of ice remained floating in the Chukchi Sea. There was enough floating sea ice to allow females and calves to stay near their feeding grounds without having to move to land-based haulouts.

Even MORE ice available this year.. Why doesn't the HUFFPO go interview some of the calfing females and ask them how they decided this? Point Lay is a walrus breeding ground.. Has been for decades.. Will be for decades..

 

[skookerasbil]

I love when dicks make dickheads of themselves!!!

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Oooooooooooops!!

 

[mamooth]

You two have trouble feeding yourselves, right?

I have to assume that, given the degree of retardation it would take to think that a new low sea ice record has to be set every year, otherwise AGW theory is disproven.

Seriously, you two are 'tards. Morons. Dumbfucks. You have shit-for-brains. This stuff isn't tough, but you two are too 'effin stupid to grasp the most basic stuff.

And that's the one thing common to most denialists. They just ain't very bright.