Baby Walruses Cry Out Amid Melting Ice - MSNBC

WASHINGTON - Arctic researchers who discovered a surprising number of abandoned baby walruses say melting sea ice may be the culprit, according to a study in this month's issue of Aquatic Mammals.

During an icebreaker cruise in the Canada Basin two years ago, researchers measured a unusually warm mass of water — as high as 44 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) — moving into the area from the Bering Sea to the south. This warm water may have rapidly melted seasonal sea ice over the shallow continental shelf north of Alaska, the study said.

They also found nine lone and possibly abandoned walrus calves in the area, an "unprecedented number" for walruses, since mothers tend to stay with their calves for two years. "We were on a station for 24 hours, and the calves would be swimming around us, crying. We couldn't rescue them," said team member Carin Ashjian, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Sea ice offers foraging walruses a place to rest. Mothers leave their calves on the ice while they dive to feed on animals on the sea floor such as crabs and clams. But rising ocean temperatures may be forcing the walrus mothers to abandon their young as they follow the rapidly retreating ice edge north to colder waters, the study said. Without their mothers, the calves likely drown or starve, according to the research team.

EDIT

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12318525/

Just ask George Bush, Bill O'reily and Rush Limpballs.

:sarcasm:

This, and the recent polar bear story telling of drowning polar bears due to fewer ice sheets sadden me deeply.

some say

the earth is flat

(poor things, the baby walruses)

Walruses leaving their pups -- polar bears drowning -- there are going to be repercussions through the whole Arctic ecosystem, and I fear there will be more stories like this.

I'll bet the scientists feel rotten. I've worked with Arctic researchers and zoologists before, and even though they know that nothing can be done (a polar bear cub that doesn't make it, or a lame snow goose hatchling you know will be eaten by predators), it's very hard to see something like that.