Open Water in the Arctic

  • Scientists are reporting vast expanses of open water in polar bear habitat due to thinning and melting ice (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)

Polar bear researchers off Alaska’s
northern coast found striking differences in
sea ice conditions recently. Lori Townsend
reports:

Transcript

Polar bear researchers off Alaska’s
northern coast found striking differences in
sea ice conditions recently. Lori Townsend
reports:

Dr. Steven Amstrup is a polar bear expert and USGS wildlife biologist.

“This is the first time in my 28 years working up here this time of year that we’ve seen anything like
this.”

Amstrup is conducting yearly research on polar bears in Alaska’s Arctic. He says getting out to pack ice usually means
flying over a narrow expanse of open water called a lead.

“But this year that lead is wide open, we have no idea really how wide it is, but its way too far for us to
fly across. So we’ve been limited to hunting in a fairly narrow band of ice that’s fairly near shore.”

Amstrup says the open water is consistent with warming conditions that result in
thinner ice. Polar bears rely on pack ice for hunting seals and other marine
mammals.

For The Environment Report, I’m Lori Townsend.

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