Arctic Sea Ice Far More Fragile Than Satellites Indicated

Much less ice for polar bears, expert says

 Survey by ship finds satellite data about thicker Arctic ice was wrong

 The Associated Press, Nov . 27, 2009

Arctic sea ice conditions are even worse than feared after a survey found that ice detected as older and thicker by satellites is actually thin and fragile, a prominent Canadian researcher reported Friday.

University of Manitoba researcher David Barber said experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding, but the thick, multiyear frozen sheets have been replaced by thin ice that cannot support the weight of a polar bear.

"Polar bears are being restricted to a small fringe of where this multiyear sea ice is. As we went further and further north, we saw less and less polar bears because this ice wasn't even strong enough for the polar bears to stand on," said Barber, who returned from an expedition to the Beaufort Sea in September.

Barber said permanent ice, which is normally up to 30 feet thick, was easily pierced by the research icebreaker he and his team were on.

The deterioration has far-reaching consequences for the North and its iconic mammal. Polar bears that rely on the permanent ice to survive the summer have fewer and fewer places of refuge, said Barber, who has been studying the Arctic ecosystem for 25 years.

Bears eating bears for food?

Scientists also said Friday that shrinking Arctic sea ice may be forcing some hungry polar bears to cannibalize bear cubs.

At least seven cases of mature male polar bears eating bear cubs have been spotted this year among the animals around Churchill, Manitoba, said Ian Stirling, a retired Environment Canada biologist who specializes in the Churchill bears.

Stirling said evidence suggests the cubs are being killed for food, not just so the male can mate with the sow.

He said the Hudson Bay sea ice, which the bears use to hunt the seals they consume to fatten up for winter, isn't appearing until weeks later than it used to.

The sea ice findings, which are soon to be published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters, come as a shock to experts worldwide.

Although northern sea ice hit a record low in 2007, researchers believed it was recovering because of what they were seeing on satellite images.

But the satellites the experts relied on were misleading because the rotten ice looked sturdy on the surface and has a similar superficial temperature, Barber explained.

"The satellites give us only part of the story. The multiyear ice is disappearing and it's almost all gone now from the northern hemisphere."

Ice floe breaks up in 5 minutes

Barber said his team finally reached what it thought was stable ice, only to watch a crack appear just as researchers were preparing to descend onto the floe.

"As I watched, over the course of five minutes, the entire multiyear ice floe broke up into pieces. This floe was 10 miles across," said Barber, who holds the Canada research chair in Arctic science at the University of Manitoba.

The ice is unable to withstand battering waves and storms because global warming is rapidly melting it at a rate of 27,000 square miles each year, he said.

Multiyear sea ice used to cover 90 percent of the Arctic basin, Barber said. It now covers roughly 19 percent. Where it used to be up to 33 feet thick, it's now 6 feet at most.

The lack of sea ice may be good news to some who want to see the North opened to industry. Without thick ice blocking the way, ships can more easily gain access to the Arctic's natural resources.

"We were doing almost the same speed we'd do in open water through what we thought was multiyear sea ice," Barber said. "Transportation and all the issues of navigation across the pole all become very real when you no longer have any multiyear sea ice."

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