How
have changes in Arctic environment over the past 50 years
affected the Alaska Native community?
Native
observations of change in the marine environment of the
Bering Strait region
Caleb
Pungowiyi
Special
Advisor on Native Affairs
Marine Mammal Commission
P.O. Box 217
Kotzebue, AK 99752, USA
Since the late 1970s, Alaska Natives in communities along
the coast of the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas have noticed
substantial changes in the ocean and the animals that live
there. While we are used to changes from year-to-year in
weather, hunting conditions, ice patterns, and animal populations,
the past two decades have seen clear trends in many environmental
factors. If these trends continue, we can expect major,
perhaps irreversible, impacts to our communities. With these
concerns in mind, we believe this workshop will be a vital
opportunity to discuss our concerns and observations with
scientists who are working on similar issues in the same
area, and to work together to figure out what can be done.
Beginning in
the late 1970s, the patterns of wind, temperature, ice,
and currents in the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas have
changed. The winds are stronger, commonly 15-25 mph, and
there are fewer calm days. The wind may shift in direction,
but remains strong for long periods. In spring, the winds
change the distribution of the sea ice and combine with
warm temperatures to speed up the melting of ice and snow.
When the ice melts or moves away early, many marine mammals
go with it, taking them too far away to hunt. Near some
villages (such as Savoonga, Diomede, and Shishmaref), depending
on the geography of the coast, the wind may force the pack
ice into shore, making it impossible to get boats to open
water to go hunting or to move boats through if they are
already out. The high winds also make it difficult to travel
in boats for hunting (even winds of 1012 mph from
the wrong direction can create waves 23 feet high,
stopping small boats), reducing the number of days that
hunters can go out. For all these reasons, access to animals
during the spring hunting period is lower now than it was
before.
From mid-July
to September, there has been more wind from the south, making
for a wetter season. With less sea ice and more open water,
fall storms have become more destructive to the coastline.
Erosion has increased in many areas, including the locations
of some villages, such as Shishmaref and Kivalina, threatening
houses and perhaps the entire community. Wave action has
changed some sandy beaches into rocky ones, as the sand
washes away. There have been no new sandy beaches, but there
are many new rocky ones.
The south shore
of St. Lawrence Island has also been affected a great deal
by erosion in recent years. Some shallow spits that used
to be above water are now underwater, due perhaps to a combination
of higher water and erosion. The storms and high wavesup
to 30 feetalso change the sea bed near shore. After
storms, kelp and other bottom-dwelling plants and animals
such as clams can be found washed up on the beach. These
disturbances to the bottom affect shallow feeders such as
eiders.
The formation
of sea ice in fall has been late in many recent years, due
largely to warmer winters, though winds play a role as well.
In such years, the ice, when it does form, is thinner than
usual, which contributes to early break-up in spring. Another
aspect of late freeze-up is the way in which sea ice forms.
Under normal conditions, the water is cold in fall, and
permafrost under the water and near the shoreline helps
create ice crystals on the sea floor. When they are large
enough, these crystals float to the top, bringing with them
sediments. The sediments have nutrients used by algae growing
in the ice, thus stimulating the food chain in and near
the ice. When the ice melts in spring, the sediments are
released, providing nutrients in the melt water. In years
with warm summers and late freeze-up, on the other hand,
the water is warm and freezes first from the top as it is
cooled by cold winds in late fall or early winter. Less
ice is brought up from the bottom, and fewer nutrients are
available in the ice and in the melt water the following
spring, and overall productivity is lower.
Precipitation
patterns have also changed. In the last two years, there
has been little snow in fall and most of the winter, but
substantial snowfall in late winter and early spring. In
the winter of 199899, the weather was cold so that
the ice was thick, but there was no snow. The lack of snow
makes it difficult for polar bears and ringed seals to make
dens for giving birth or, in the case of male polar bears,
to seek protection from the weather. The lack of ringed
seal dens may affect the numbers and condition of polar
bears, which prey on ringed seals and often seek out the
dens. Hungry polar bears may be more likely to approach
villages and encounter people.
Other marine
mammals have been affected to greater or lesser degrees
by the changes in sea ice, wind, and temperature. The physical
condition of walrus was generally poor in 199698,
as the animals were skinny and their productivity was low.
One cause was the reduced sea ice, which forced the walrus
to swim farther between feeding areas in relatively shallow
water and resting areas on the distant ice. This is the
pattern for females and young in summer, and when the ice
retreated far to the north in the Chukchi Sea, the animals
suffered. Males typically haul out on land, and may have
eaten most of the food near the haulouts, forcing them to
go farther in search of clams. Due to wave action and sedimentation,
the productivity of the sea bed may have declined, too,
making it harder for walrus to find food. In the spring
of 1999, however, the walrus were in good condition following
a cold winter with good ice formation in the Bering Sea.
When the winter ice forms late and is too thin, walrus cannot
haul out and rest the way they need to, and they will be
in poor condition the following spring.
Most seals seem
to be doing fairly well. Hunters have been having more success
hunting bearded seals lately. The seals are in good condition,
and it may be that there are more of them or that they are
concentrated in hunting areas for some reason. Spotted seals,
on the other hand, seem to have declined from the late 1960s/early
1970s to the present. In 1996 and 1997, in which spring
break-up came early, there were more strandings of baby
ringed seals on the beach. These weanlings were probably
left on their own too early. The mothers train their young
on the shorefast ice where they den, but if the ice melts,
the seals must abandon their dens early. Ringed seals seem
to need more time to train their young, and are greatly
affected if spring is early. There are fewer seals in the
Nome area these days, perhaps as a result of less shore
ice for ringed seal dens.
There are many
other biological changes and effects in the region, such
as:
- In spring,
bird migrations are early. Geese and songbirds have been
arriving in late April, earlier than ever before. Sudden
cold snaps at this time of year can harm the birds. Snipe
seem to be affected most, perhaps because they need unfrozen
ground to feed, and many die in such cold spells.
- In August
of 1996 and 1997, there were large die-offs of kittiwakes
and murres, though other birds seem to be doing reasonably
well.
- In the warm
summers, especially if they are also dry, many different
kinds of insects appear on the tundra. These include lots
of caterpillars on bushes, and then butterflies. Other
bugs that haven't been seen before have appeared, though
mosquitoes are still the same.
- Chum salmon
in Norton Sound crashed in the early 1990s, and have been
down ever since.
- The treeline
has moved westward across the Seward and Baldwin Peninsulas
(i.e., into formerly treeless areas). Bushes are getting
bigger and taller. Willows are now like trees, taller
than houses, whereas in the 1970s they were small and
scrubby.
- Mild winters
with little snow have been good for ptarmigan, which are
healthy and abundant. This may also be a result of low
hare populations, leaving little competition for the ptarmigan.
There is no record
of this type of extended change. In the 1880s, during the
time of the Great Famine in western Alaska, there were very
cold winters for a long period. The main factor in the famine
was the decimation of walrus and whale populations due to
the commercial harvest by Yankee whalers, but lots of ice
and the long, cold winters did not make things easier.
As we think about
the future and where these trends may lead us, we wonder
what alternatives are available to Native villages in Alaska
and elsewhere in the Arctic. If marine mammal populations
are no longer available or accessible to our communities,
what can replace them? In the Great Famine, there were no
alternatives to the food provided by hunting and fishing.
Today, there are stores with food and other resources that
can be harvested. A gradual change might give us time to
adjust, but a sudden shift might catch us unprepared and
cause great hardship. As managers, we need to think about
the overall effects on marine mammals and other resources.
Some may adjust, but others will not. The polar bear and
walrus are likely to be the most affected. With these thoughts
in mind, we need to consider the potential emergencies facing
villages that depend so heavily on marine mammals. How can
we prepare ourselves, and how much can be done to prevent
hardship?
Our ancestors
taught us that the Arctic environment is not constant, and
that some years are harder than others. But they also taught
us that hard years are followed by times of greater abundance
and celebration. As we have found with other aspects of
our culture's ancestral wisdom, modern changes, not of our
doing, make us wonder when the good years will return.
RELEVANT INFORMATION:
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