Marine species in the Arctic are reportedly on the rise according to a recent study conducted by the Arctic Council’s biodiversity working group at the a conference in Montreal.

Three groups which include the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program, the Zoological Society of London, and the World Wildlife Fund have recently stated that fish populations have significantly increased in recent times. This tends to go against what most people commonly believe is happening in the Arctic. For many years now we have all heard scientist state that increasing global temperatures will have a negative impact on the population of arctic and tundra based animals.

The three groups worked together in the findings which studies close to 900 population on 323 species of vertebrates existing in the Arctic region.

The Arctic wildlife population fluctuates, the teams said in a statement. The fluctuations are linked to “Arctic climate oscillations and changes in commercial harvest” in nearby waters.

The report identified that fish living close to the surface of the water as opposed to near the ocean bottom were most susceptible to climate change, including such commercially important species as Pacific herring, ocean perch and Arctic cisco.

Some mammals were found to be recovering from exploitation, but rising populations of gray whales, bowhead whales and Greenlandic walruses have not returned to historical levels.

Sea ice species ringed seal, beluga whale, and thick-billed guillemot, meanwhile, have declined.

As well, marine birds continued a slow and steady decline that started in the late 20th century. The report said this “may be related to changes in climate, sea ice and food availability” and may be the beginning of a longer-term decline.

The effects of Arctic warming also were not restricted to the far north. The Atlantic Ocean is experiencing a decline in vertebrates thought to be driven by Arctic climate shifts, as well as commercial fishing.

In contrast, the Pacific Ocean has experienced a dramatic increase in vertebrates, amid warmer sea temperatures.

If any of you have seen the BBC recent and rather excellent Frozen Planet series you might be surprised to learn that everything on screen was not quite how it appeared in real life.  The show’s host and long time BBC legend David Attenborough has come out supporting the shows decision to “fake” the filming of a polar bear by using footage captured from zoos rather than the actual arctic they claimed to be in.

Read on for more of the story from the UK’s daily press :

Sir David Attenborough has said the decision to film a key scene from the hit BBC series Frozen Planet showing a polar bear tending her newborn cubs in a zoo using fake snow was made for “the safety of the animal”. The 85-year-old broadcaster told ITV1′s This Morning: “If you had tried to put a camera in the wild in a polar bear den, she would either have killed the cub or she would have killed the cameraman, one or the other.” He said explaining about the zoo during the show’s commentary would have ruined the atmosphere, adding: “It’s not falsehood and we don’t keep it secret either”. Mixing real Arctic shots with zoo scenes, documentary makers fooled the audience into believing the footage was gathered by intrepid cameramen in the brutal sub-zero wilderness when it was actually filmed from the comfort of a wildlife park enclosure using bears in a man-made wood den.

During the carefully worded Frozen Planet commentary, Sir David’s script failed to explain how the moving scene was made. More than eight million viewers tuned into the fifth episode from the £16million seven-part series on November 23. It began by showing genuine footage of a male polar bear scavenging for food during the harsh Arctic winter. As howling blizzards filled the screen, Sir David explained: “He must live on his resources. This is a time to scrape by.” The camera then panned to a frozen hillside, before cutting to a close-up of a female polar bear hibernating with her newborn cubs. Apparently referring to the same bear family, the naturalist said: “But on these side slopes beneath the snow new lives are beginning. The cubs are born blind and tiny. An early birth is easier on the mother.”

His commentary continued: “In two more months polar bear families will emerge on the snowy slopes all round the Arctic.” The camera then moves from the snowy tundra to the dark nest, watching the cubs nuzzle up to their mother, as he says: “But for now they lie protected within their icy cocoons.” Viewers marvelled at the crew’s apparently daring exploits. One fan wrote online after the show: “The camera team would be in a whole heap of s*** if mummy had woken up.” In reality, the den was made of plaster and wood beneath a German zoo’s polar bear enclosure. It was fitted with cameras shortly before the cubs’ birth. The truth behind the trickery is only revealed in a hard-to-find video among dozens of clips on the BBC website.

Yesterday John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport committee, said it was “hugely disappointing” viewers were misled. He said: “My view has always been that all broadcasters should not seek to give viewers a false impression and it is much better if they are entirely open. “If this was not filmed in the wild it would have been much better to have made that clear in the commentary. “It’s questionable how many people would visit the website and find the video clip which explained the circumstances of the filming.”

So there you have it. While it’s understandable that for the sake of safety of the crew that the “stunt” was performed as described about I can still appreciate the show overall. Perhaps the show could have included some note about the actual filming process used, which they do actually but just only when they film in the actual arctic.

Seattle times reporter Lynda Mapes recently reported on an irruption of snowy owls choosing to spend the winter in and around the Seattle area. The influx is a cyclical event occurring every 4-5 years from what I understand. This is due to a decline in the lemming population – the owls main food source in the arctic tundra biome.

DAMON POINT, Grays Harbor County — They arrive on silent wings, visitors from the Arctic.

Snowy owls usually aren’t seen around here. Yet, birders have been treated to a blizzard of snowies in Washington state since fall. Called an irruption, these periodic blessings occur when the birds come in large numbers to our region.

The last irruption was in 2006, and it caused a sensation, with the birds seen even in Seattle’s Discovery Park. So it goes this time, too: An owl graced the Paccar truck plant in Renton in one recent sighting.

They will be here until about March, feasting mostly on voles and other small mammals, resting and fattening before returning to the Arctic for the breeding season.

They are circumpolar birds, usually living in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other sites north of Alaska’s Brooks Range, as well as in Scandinavia, Russia, Greenland, Siberia and other Arctic lands. A few overwinter in the Northern Plains and New England.

Small numbers of snowies typically are seen in Washington east of the Cascades, dotting the open lands around Moses Lake, Grant County; Bridgeport, Douglas County; and the Waterville Plateau, also in Douglas County, said Brian Bell, a Seattle Audubon master birder and professional birding guide based in Woodinville.

But since fall, the birds have been spreading across the United States in great numbers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports. Nearly 2 feet tall, the predominantly white owls are hard to miss.

In Washington, sightings have been pouring in across the region, from Skagit County to the Pacific Coast. Elsewhere, sightings have been reported as far east as Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts and as far south as Kansas.

Snowies also have been spotted in Connecticut, Maine, New York, Vermont, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and North Dakota.

There are two schools of thought as to why the owls are here: a shortage of food, typically lemmings, up north. Or a bumper crop of young owls this year, pushing some of the young south as they temporarily disperse to new territory.

They are a particular delight to birders. Resplendent not only in their beauty, they also conveniently like to perch on high points in open areas, such as beaches and airports. And they are active in the photogenic, crepuscular hours, on the hinge between night and day.

“Look at that,” Paul Bannick, a Seattle-based professional wildlife photographer, said as a snowy lifted silently from a driftwood stump on windswept Damon Point at Ocean Shores, in Grays Harbor County.

With its tundralike landscape, Damon Point has attracted a large aggregation of snowies — and many birders have flocked to appreciate them.

As he photographed the snowies, Bannick worked carefully, remaining motionless and keeping a long distance to avoid changing the birds’ behavior. If a bird moves, turns its head or even notices him, that is too much disturbance for his brand of photography, which is to capture birds in their natural element and behavior.

Avoiding stress to the birds is especially critical during winter, when every calorie of energy counts.

And what marvels they are: Gliding on silent wings, snowies are among the largest owls, with a wingspan that can reach nearly 5 feet. They also are among the heaviest, weighing in at 5 pounds, a flying sack of sugar.

Their direct, yellow-eyed gaze and sharp talons help create a commanding presence. Their immaculate feathers gleam in the long, lush winter light.

At Damon Point, the owls were noble in their erect posture, seeming to pose on silvery driftwood stumps, surveying their domain. Not for nothing is a group of owls called a parliament.

To Bannick, the snowies’ periodic visits are living proof of the linked landscapes that make up their home, and ours.

“There are so many birds reliant on the Arctic that we see here,” Bannick said. “They are a great reminder that these places are all connected.”

 

 

Picture: Scandinavian Wildlife Park

Siku the polar bear was an internet hit when was born at the Scandinavian Wild Park in Kolind, Denmark. Pictures and video of Siku were uploaded to the internet after his birth and the world instantly fell in love with him. He is currently being raised by humans as his mother was unable to produce enough milk to feed him when she gave birth on November 22.

The Canadian government has listed polar bears as a “species of special concern” under the Species at Risk Act, an action that now has a number of people up in arms, though for opposing reasons.

Inuit people are wary of any more restrictions being placed on the hunting of this spiritually revered animal and are worried about public safety given an increasing number of bears wandering through communities, while environmentalists think the ruling doesn’t go far enough in protecting the bears.

Both camps spoke out on November 10 after Environment Canada published its ruling.

“ITK expects Inuit from the four Inuit land claim regions will be invited to be closely involved by the federal government in the development of this national management plan to ensure that Inuit rights and land claims obligations and processes will be adhered to and protected,” the Inuit advocacy group Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami said in a statement. “Key among Inuit expectations is the increased involvement and use of Inuit Traditional Knowledge in the polar bear research and management decision-making processes.”

This knowledge was deployed in a three-day series of meetings in October in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, attended by 27 delegates of Inuit national and regional organizations, ITK said in an October 6 statement, as well as wildlife management boards from Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, Nunavut and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. Attendees also included representatives from the territorial governments of NWT, Nunavut and the federal ministry of Environment Canada.

The workshop’s agenda called for drafting a protocol for aligning ATK and science to they would complement each other when it comes to polar bear research and management.

High on the list of Inuit concerns is the fact that the number of polar bears is increasing, which is causing them to be a danger as they wander, hungry, into communities. Another concern is that current international agreements on polar bear maintenance do not include much ATK.

Gabriel Nirlungayuk, the director of wildlife at Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., served as a delegate to meetings about polar bear strategy that took place at the end of October and met with officials from Denmark (Greenland), Norway, the United States and Russia on October 24. He told the Nunatsiaq News that he saw too much science and not enough on-the-ground Inuit hunting knowledge in the bear-management equation.

“Our concern is there’s a lot of scientific information,” Nirlungayuk told the Nunatsiaq News after the international summit. “And it’s very expensive to do scientific studies. [But] there are a lot of boundaries for [polar bear] sub-populations that haven’t been inventoried. What we feel could fill the gap is traditional knowledge, but it’s not widely considered.”

ITK echoed this after the Environment Canada ruling.

The Center for Biological Diversity, though, was of a different mind.

“The Canadian government this week denied important and urgently needed protections for polar bears under the country’s Species At Risk Act. Instead of listing the imperiled bears as “threatened” or “endangered,” the government designated the bears as a “species of special concern,” which affords the bears no substantive protections,” the Center for Biological Diversity said in a media release on November 10.

“Canada is turning a blind eye to the deep trouble that polar bears are in. This designation is absurd in light of the science, ongoing population declines, and the increasingly frequent incidences of polar bears starving and drowning,” said Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, in the statement.

The institute sued to get polar bears protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

“The bear clearly warrants listing as at least ‘threatened,’ and more likely, ‘endangered,’ ” Siegel said. “Canada needs to acknowledge the scale of the climate crisis and the fact that we need deep and rapid greenhouse pollution reductions to protect both polar bears and people.”

Caught in the middle, of course, are the bears themselves. And what they are caught in is a lack of ice, as their habitat literally melts. In fact, the U.S. government came under fire from Native groups in Alaska back in January for designating a polar bear habitat by way of protection. No amount of regulation can bring the ice back, they said.

“Canada is home to two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population and we have a unique conservation responsibility to effectively care for them,” Environment Canada spokesman Mark Johnson told The Star.

Now that the bear is listed, the government has started the clock ticking on a three-year period during which it must create a preservation plan to stabilize the polar bear population. At issue specifically are the bears of the Western Hudson Bay and Southern Beaufort Sea, which are attributable at least in part to climate change, according to The Star, and Kane Basin and Baffin Bay, which is caused by over-harvesting.

Between 20,000 and 25,000 polar bears live in five countries within the Arctic Circle—Canada, the U.S., Russia, Norway and Greenland—with 15,000 of them in Canada. The five nations already have a National Polar Bear Conservation Strategy in place. The management plan will build on this strategy, Environment Canada said in a media statement.

“Environment Canada held extensive consultations with provincial and territorial governments, regional wildlife management boards, aboriginal peoples and other stakeholders,” the statement said. “The vast majority supported the listing.”

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