Arctic Scientists On This Summer's Research Trip: "We Packed Long Underwear, Never Put It On"
When the Arctic researchers Jacqueline Grebmeier and Lee Cooper made their annual scientific pilgrimage to frigid seas off Alaska last month, what they found was startling. Areas that were previously accessible at that time of the year only with an ice-breaking ship had become open water. “We packed our long underwear, and we never put it on,” Cooper said.
In years past, the pair could convince wary volunteers to accompany them by promising walrus sightings. But with no sea ice to perch on and fewer clams to eat, the tusked butterballs have moved to more comfortable accommodations on the beaches. Instead, the research team saw huge fishing boats searching farther north for Pacific cod, and a container ship traveling a newly melted route from Quebec to Korea. It snowed only once during their three weeks on the water.
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Grebmeier explained that the lack of sea ice was leading to higher levels of algal production – including the kind that can be deadly. Clams eat the toxic algae, and walruses, diving ducks and humans eat the clams. That’s also worrying because indigenous populations along the Alaska coast depend on clams for food. One study published this year found that marine communities in the Pacific Arctic will see profound changes in response to warming and reductions in sea ice. Larger species that live longer are likely to move toward the pole by the end of the century, disrupting the food web.
Cooper said the changes were particularly sad for indigenous communities that have been in Alaska for thousands of years and are now coping with unstable sea ice and trying to hunt animals that are moving. “Not in our lifetimes is it going back to the way it was when we first started out working in Alaska in the late 1980s,” Cooper said.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/13/arctic-melting-climate-change
