Walrus moves closer to Endangered Species listing

[Kadie]

Walrus moves closer to Endangered Species listing

by Kris Molle — last modified 2009-09-09 09:58

From various news articles and press releases: Global warming, oil development etc. threaten the Pacific Walrus. So much so that listing the walrus as threatened or endangered was warranted.

This would be the second Arctic marine mammal (After the Polar Bear) that would get an Endangered Species listing due to global warming. The petition was presented by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced.

The Center for Biological Diversity's spokeswoman Rebecca Noblin said that unless immediate action is taken to reduce greenhouse gases, warming will claim walrus as a victim. "Climate change is the primary threat, but the offshore oil development in the Chukchi and Bering seas is also a problem. Walruses could be forced into a land-based existence for which they are not adapted."

The walrus uses sea ice to breed and forage, diving from ice over the shallow outer continental shelf in search of clams and other benthic creatures. Females and their young traditionally use ice as a moving diving platform, riding it north like a conveyor belt as it recedes in spring and summer, first in the northern Bering Sea, then into the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast.

more...
http://www.polarconservation.org/news/pco-news-articles/walrus-moves-closer-to-endangered-species-listing



FILE - In this May 18, 2006 file photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, walrus gather on an ice flow in the northern Bering Sea off of Alaska. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday Sept. 8, 2009 announced that a petition presented by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, presents substantial information for listing walrus under the Endangered Species Act.
(AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Liz Labunski, file)

[deaniac21]

1. Goo Goo Ga Joob

[hatrack]

2. From Woods Hole, 2006 - "The Pups Were Swimming Around Us Crying. We Couldn't Rescue Them"

Scientists have reported an unprecedented number of unaccompanied and possibly abandoned walrus calves in the Arctic Ocean, where melting sea ice may be forcing mothers to abandon their pups as the mothers follow the rapidly retreating ice edge north.

Nine lone walrus calves were reported swimming in deep waters far from shore by researchers aboard the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy during a cruise in the Canada Basin in the summer of 2004. Unable to forage for themselves, the calves were likely to drown or starve, the scientists said.

Lone walrus calves far from shore have not been described before, the researchers report in the April issue of Aquatic Mammals. The sightings suggest that increased polar warming may lead to decreases in the walrus population.

“We were on a station for 24 hours, and the calves would be swimming around us crying. We couldn’t rescue them,” said Carin Ashjian, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and a member of the research team.

The researchers found evidence of warmer ocean temperatures that may have rapidly melted seasonal sea ice over the shallow continental shelf where walruses dive to feed on bottom-dwelling animals such as clams and crabs. Walrus need the ice to rest themselves and to leave the pups to rest while the mothers feed. Ice remained over very deep water.

“If walruses and other ice-associated marine mammals cannot adapt to caring for their young in shallow waters without sea-ice available as a resting platform between dives to the sea floor, a significant population decline of this species could occur,” the research team wrote. The lead author of the study is Lee W. Cooper, a biogeochemist at the University of Tennessee.

Cooper, Ashjian and other researchers made the unexpected walrus calf sightings during a cruise to investigate the impact of global climate change on the oceanic ecosystem over the continental shelf of Alaska. Their work focused on the shallower waters of the continental shelf in the Chukchi Sea to deeper waters in the Beaufort Sea of the Western Arctic Ocean. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.

Adult Pacific walrus, Odobenus rosmarus divergens, forage for food by diving as far as 200 meters about (630 feet) down to the seafloor and using sensitive facial bristles to locate prey. Sea ice normally forms over the continental shelf north of Alaska and persists even in summer. Adult walrus use the sea ice as a resting platform; mothers leave the calves there and dive to the bottom for food.

“The young can’t forage for themselves,” Ashjian said. “They don’t know how to eat,” and are dependent on their mothers’ milk for up to two years.

EDIT

http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=12457&tid=282&cid=12209

[YOY]

3. Give them their Bukkit!!!

n/t

[hatrack]

4. K&R

nt