HR: 0800h
AN: C21A-0959    [Abstracts]
TI: Affects of Changes in Sea Ice Cover on Bowhead Whales and Subsistence Whaling in the Western Arctic
AU: * Moore, S
EM: sue.moore@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/Alaska Fisheries Science Center, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115 United States
AU: Suydam, R
EM: robert.suydam@north-slope.org
AF: North Slope Borough, Department of Wildlife Management, P.O. Box 69, Barrow, AK 99723 United States
AU: Overland, J
EM: james.e.overland@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115 United States
AU: Laidre, K
EM: kristin.laidre@noaa.gov
AF: Danish Polar Center, Strandgade 100 H, Copenhagen, DK-1401 Denmark
AU: George, J
EM: craig.george@north-slope.org
AF: North Slope Borough, Department of Wildlife Management, P.O. Box 69, Barrow, AK 99723 United States
AU: DeMaster, D
EM: douglas.demaster@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/Alaska Fisheries Science Center, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115 United States
AB: Global warming may disproportionately affect Arctic marine mammals and disrupt traditional subsistence hunting activities. Based upon analyses of a 24-year time series (1979-2002) of satellite-derived sea ice cover, we identified significant positive trends in the amount of open-water in three large and five small-scale regions in the western Arctic, including habitats where bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) feed or are suspected to feed. Bowheads are the only mysticete whale endemic to the Arctic and a cultural keystone species for Native peoples from northwestern Alaska and Chukotka, Russia. While copepods (Calanus spp.) are a mainstay of the bowhead diet, prey sampling conducted in the offshore region of northern Chukotka and stomach contents from whales harvested offshore of the northern Alaskan coast indicate that euphausiids (Thysanoessa spp.) advected from the Bering Sea are also common prey in autumn. Early departure of sea ice has been posited to control availability of zooplankton in the southeastern Bering Sea and in the Cape Bathurst polynya in the southeastern Canadian Beaufort Sea, with maximum secondary production associated with a late phytoplankton bloom in insolatoin-stratified open water. While it is unclear if declining sea-ice has directly affected production or advection of bowhead prey, an extension of the open-water season increases opportunities for Native subsistence whaling in autumn. Therefore, bowhead whales may provide a nexus for simultaneous exploration of the effects sea ice reduction on pagophillic marine mammals and on the social systems of the subsistence hunting community in the western Arctic. The NOAA/Alaska Fisheries Science Center and NSB/Department of Wildlife Management will investigate bowhead whale stock identity, seasonal distribution and subsistence use patterns during the International Polar Year, as an extension of research planned for 2005-06. This research is in response to recommendations from the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission. Research plans include biopsy sampling and subsequent genetic analyses, long-term acoustic detection and satellite tracking of whales in selected portions of their range coupled with community-based management of the subsistence harvest. This research, in concert with extension of oceanographic observing capabilities, promises to elucidate underlying forcing mechanisms key to the changing high-Arctic marine ecosystem.
DE: 4815 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics
DE: 4203 Analytical modeling
DE: 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography
DE: 3309 Climatology (1620)
DE: 1635 Oceans (4203)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting