Melting sea ice forcing Walruses ashore

Thousands of walrus have appeared on Alaska’s northwest coast a clear indication of the consequence of global warming melting the Arctic sea ice.

Alaska’s walrus, especially breeding females, in summer and fall are usually found on the Arctic ice pack. But the lowest summer ice cap on record put sea ice far north of the outer continental shelf, the shallow, life-rich shelf of ocean bottom in the Bering and Chukchi seas.

Walrus feed on clams, snails and other bottom dwellers. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, September sea ice was 39 per cent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000.

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