The amount of floating ice in the Arctic’s Bering Sea – which had long been expected to retreat disastrously by climate-Cassandra organisations such as Greenpeace – reached all-time record high levels last month, according to US researchers monitoring the area using satellites.
The US National Snow and Ice Data Center announced last week that ice extent in the Bering for the month of March has now been collated and compared, and is the highest seen since records began. The NSIDC boffins said in a statement:
As winds from the north pushed Arctic ice southward through the Bering Strait, the ice locked together and formed a structurally continuous band known as an ice arch, which acts a bit like a keystone arch in a building. The ice arch temporarily held back the ice behind it, but as the winds continued, the arch failed along its southern edge, and ice cascaded south through the strait into the Bering Sea. Sea ice also piled up on the northern coast of St Lawrence Island, streaming southward on either side of it.
This contrasts sharply with the grim future for the Bering predicted by Greenpeace. Thirteen years ago in 1999, the hippies* had this to say:
The first regions to be affected will be ice-dependent seas near but outside the Arctic Ocean proper, including the Bering Sea … These areas are currently covered in seasonal winter ice, which could vanish altogether with continued warming.
Walruses, which travel long distances on floating sea ice that allows them to feed over a wide area may be particularly vulnerable …
Many species of seal are ice-dependent, including the spotted seal, which in the Bering Sea breeds exclusively at the ice edge in spring; the harp seal, which lives at the ice edge all year; the ringed seal, which give birth to and nurse their pups on sea ice; the ribbon seal and the bearded seal.
Polar bears would be threatened by any decline in ringed seal populations, their main food source.
Which now looks alarmist to say the least.
Just to get the science straight…
Are we here talking about AREA of sea ice cover, VOLUME of ice cover, or what? The NSIDC report of 04 April 2012 seems to indicate that some regions (e.g., Bering Straight) this year have more than average areal ice coverage, but in some regions the ice is thinner than usual (therefore having less ice volume even if the aereal coverage is similar to before). Is everybody talking about the same measurements and trends?
As the song goes, phonologically: “You talk bahn-ahnas and I talk bann-annas…” — From an old scientist (who doesn’t want you all to keep talking at cross-purposes)!
Just to get it straight, it’s of course called “Bering Strait” …
And,the NSIDC report that I alluded to is at http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2012/04/arctic-sea-ice-enters-the-spring-melt-season/