Receding ice shelf threatens Alaskan arctic life

The Obama administration is seeking a more integrated way of regulating the nation´s lakes and marine shores.  Obama´s task force for oceans called for the creation of a National Ocean Council that would coordinate the efforts of several agencies to conserve marine ecosystems.

The council would deal with issues like fisheries, water quality and pollution from industrial and commercial activities.  It would facilitate a joint response from federal agencies that currently deal with these problems separately.

In a report released yesterday, Obama´s Ocean Policy Task Force also recommended the Federal government take an “ecosystem-based approach” to marine policy.  One of the issues the new ocean council would look at are the impacts of global warming in coastal communities and ecosystems like Alaska´s arctic waters, where climate change is melting the ice shelf.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center recently revealed that Arctic summer ice reached a minimum extension of 1.97 million square miles on September 12th, making 2009 the third lowest year on record.

Shaye Wolf is a biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity. She says these low levels of sea ice are having a catastrophic impact on Alaska´s Walruses.

“The important point is that when the sea ice disappears from walruses´ foraging grounds and they´re forced  to come on shore, then it exposes them to new dangers on shore. And one of those dangers especially for young walruses is that they can be trampled to death in these large herds when there are stampedes. So if for example there is human disturbance a human shows up a plane flies to low or maybe a predator shows up. Walruses will stampede to the safety of the water and large males can crush calves.”

Wildlife specialists recently found some 200 dead walruses near Icy Cape, in Alaska´s northern coast.  Most of them were calves and yearlings.  Wolf says other species like polar bears and four types of seals also depend on sea ice as a breeding ground or as a base from which to hunt for fish.   

Over the summer the House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at reducing carbon emissions, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which will be discussed by the Senate later this year.  Many environmentalists oppose this proposal.

“The House bill, even if it were implemented and executed perfectly, wouldn´t achieve the greenhouse gas reduction necessary to save the walrus or the polar bear in the arctic. Climate scientists and the best available climate science are telling us that we need to achieve atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration of 350 parts per million if we´re to avoid catastrophic climate impact. The House bill wouldn´t even achieve a target of 450 million and we need to get to a target of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide.”

Wolf says Congress and the Obama administration should instead focus on enforcing the Clean Air Act, because this legislation provides the tools necessary to curb carbon emissions.