e360 digest

29 Sep 2010: Video Captures Massive Haul-Out
of Walruses as Summer Ice Retreats

Aerial video footage recently released by the U.S. Geological Survey captures the epic scale of a mass migration of walruses to the coast of Alaska in the face of diminished summer sea ice. Researchers say 10,000 to 20,000 walruses have abandoned the shrinking ice of the Chukchi Sea for land along the U.S. and Russian coasts. The video footage, taken from about 4,000 feet, shows thousands of walruses packed together on the shore of Alaska’s Point Lay. “These walruses are typically out on the sea ice, drifting over shallow continental shelf waters that are really rich in the foods that they eat,” Geoff York of WWF’s Global Arctic Program told Discovery News. In earlier decades, the summer sea ice was like a “conveyor belt” that constantly moved the walruses over food-rich, shallow waters, York said. But with the ice rapidly disappearing in summer, he said, the walruses had to choose whether to remain on sea ice over less fertile, deeper waters or swim to shore. He said this was the third summer in recent memory that the walruses — mainly females and calves — have hauled out en masse on the Alaskan and Russian coasts, and that this summer saw the largest-ever migration of walruses to shore along the Chukchi Sea. A recent USGS report said that hundreds of walruses — mainly juveniles — have been trampled in Alaska and that thousands have been trampled in Russia in the packed conditions.

Watch the video

Yale Environment 360 is
a publication of the
Yale School of Forestry
& Environmental Studies.

SEARCH e360

CONNECT

Twitter: YaleE360
e360 on Facebook
Donate to e360
View mobile site
Bookmark
Share e360
Email newsletter
Subscribe to our feed:

ABOUT

About e360
Contact
Submission Guidelines
Reprints

e360 PHOTO GALLERY

South African photojournalist Adam Welz documents the harrowing relocation of six white rhinos to a region that has lost all its rhinos to poaching. View the gallery.

DEPARTMENTS

Opinion
Reports
Analysis
Interviews
e360 Digest
Podcasts
Video Reports

TOPICS

Biodiversity
Business & Innovation
Climate
Energy
Forests
Oceans
Policy & Politics
Pollution & Health
Science & Technology
Sustainability
Urbanization
Water

REGIONS

Antarctica and the Arctic
Africa
Asia
Australia
Central & South America
Europe
Middle East
North America

e360 VIDEO

A Yale Environment 360 video explores Ecuador’s threatened Yasuni Biosphere Reserve with scientists inventorying its stunning forests and wildlife. Watch the video.

e360 MOBILE

The latest
from Yale
Environment 360 is now available for mobile devices at e360.yale.edu/mobile.

e360 VIDEO

In a Yale Environment 360 video, photographer Pete McBride documents how increasing water demands have transformed the Colorado River, the lifeblood of the arid Southwest. Watch the video.




Top Image: aerial view of Iceland. © Google & TerraMetrics.

e360 VIDEO

The Warriors of Qiugang, a Yale Environment 360 video that chronicles the story of a Chinese village’s fight against a polluting chemical plant, was nominated for a 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Watch the video.

OF INTEREST