We’re not even sure that these kinds of events are all that unusual since we haven’t studies the environment in such detail with such accuracy before. Of course we are going to see some unusual things, we’re looking for them. Simply ascribing the global warming as agent of doom tag is a knee-jerk reaction.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska–In what some scientists see as another alarming consequence of global warming, thousands of Pacific walruses above the Arctic Circle were killed in stampedes earlier this year after the disappearance of sea ice caused them to crowd onto the shoreline in extraordinary numbers.
The deaths took place during the late summer and fall on the Russian side of the Bering Strait…
Unlike seals, walruses cannot swim indefinitely. The giant tusked mammals typically clamber onto the sea ice to rest, or haul themselves onto the land for just a few weeks at a time.
But ice disappeared in the Chukchi Sea this year because of warm summer weather, ocean currents and persistent eastern winds…
As a result, walruses came ashore earlier and stayed longer, congregating in extremely high numbers, with herds as big as 40,000 at Point Shmidt, a spot that had not been used by walruses as a ‘haulout’ for a century, scientists said.
Walruses are vulnerable to stampedes when they gather in such large numbers…
Biologist Anatoly Kochnev of Russia’s Pacific Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography estimated 3000 to 4000 walruses out of population of perhaps 200,000 died, or two or three times the usual number on shore line haulouts.
He said the animals only started appearing on shore for extended periods in the late 1990′s, after the sea ice receded.
“The reason is global warming,” Kochnev said…
Scientists said the death of so many walruses–particularly calves– is alarming in itself. But if the trend continues, and walruses no longer have summer sea ice from which to dive for clams and snails, they could strip coastal areas of food, and that could reduce their numbers even further.
No large-scale walrus die-offs were seen in Alaska during the same period, apparently because the animals congregated in smaller groups on the American side of the Bering Strait, with the biggest known herd at about 2500.
The Seattle Times (14 Dec 2007)

The Greenie Tree Huggers know a picture is worth a thousand words in their campaign. Look at the mileage Al Gore got out of the Polar Bear on the chunk of ice.

On September 17th the article about the carcasses was published writing an investigation into the probable stampede is pending. Shaye Wolf, spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity, said, “It provides another indicator that climate change is taking a brutal toll on the Arctic.”

Let my imagination go back to the seven days prior to September 17th. “…get the plane a little lower. We need a better AGW picture of the walruses. Oh my God! What have we done!”

Glenn – I was restating the AGWers position, which has not been invalidated by this information, the reason being that it cannot be invalidated and that is the beauty of the “logic” behind the science and the attribution of every event to AGW. Plus you took my comment out of context.

Side note: Please read the entire comment before going off on it, makes you look bad. I know because I have done it myself.

There is a terminology problem in this discussion. Is ‘climate change’ equivalent to ‘Global Warming (whatever the cause)’, or to ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’?

“…the downward trend of recent decades (in melt off of sea ice)…”

‘Recent decades’ sounds less than the ’30 years’ in the formal definition of ‘climate’.
And, more generally, ‘climate’ sounds rather permanent–even if its changing.
Conclusion: We’ll let climate change be equivalent to AGW.

So my comment should have been:
Global Warming (whatever the cause) is relevant to this story only if is the reason that they are on shore, at this time of the year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/jun/08/climatechange.climatechangeenvironment

Puffers (Spholoides pachygaster) were one of several odd species inhabiting the Adriatic — Adriatic puffers were originally described in a monograph from 1870.

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=13750779

Puffers do quite well in the Atlantic, too — we used to catch them in Long Island Sound, which is quite a bit colder than the Adriatic.

What overcrowding ? Where is evidence that “more and more” of the population are “on these haulouts”? Or are you just making a lot of hot air?

Move northwards.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18925434.600-whales-move-north-as-oceans-warm.html

Other animals head for the hills.
http://www.livescience.com/environment/061214_animals_retreat.html

Even premature……………………………hibernation in doormice
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/jun/08/climatechange.climatechangeenvironment

Is it not baffling how how these creatures survived in the distant past when the planet experienced periods of much greater warmth.

What utter (a)balon(ey)

A couple of alternatives come to mind.

1. An increase in the walrus population also leads to a higher number of casualties in a stampede, although the kill ratio itself may remain constant.

2. The number of casualties may not be excessive at all, but an increase in aircraft overflights of remote areas now allow direct observation of previously unobserved stampede sites before the carcasses were scavenged into bone chips.

3. Balrogs.

“Walruses are known to congregate on isolated beaches and barrier islands along Alaska’s Chukchi Sea coast in late summer when concentrations of sea-ice are low. Between late July and early October, large walrus herds, each including as many as several hundred animals, may be encountered at resting areas (haulouts)
near Cape Lisburne (68° 52’ 53” N, 160° 11′ 39” W), Corwin Bluff (68° 52’ 30” N, 165° 06′ 02” W) and Icy Cape (70° 19’ 45” N, 161° 52′ 55” W).”

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/service_units/systemops/fs/alaskan/advisories/walrus/media/lisburnewalrus-psa.pdf
from
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/service_units/systemops/fs/alaskan/advisories/walrus/

“In response to the discovery, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put together a team comprised of representatives from USFWS, USGS, the Alaska SeaLife Center and the North Slope Borough to determine the extent and cause of the die-off. The National Marine Fisheries Service provided additional financial and technical support, with hunters from Barrow and Wainwright also assisting in the investigation.

An aerial survey of the Chukchi Sea coast conducted by USFWS and NSB confirmed the die-off was localized to the Icy Cape region.
To determine the cause of death, a smaller team mobilized to examine as many carcasses as possible and conduct necropsies – animal autopsies. Veterinarians and biologists from ASLC, USGS and NSB deployed to the area, with hunters from Wainwright and Barrow to ensure their safety. ”

—…—…

How many people were involved?
How many contracts?
How much energy, material, and efforts was spent in looking at, flying, and analyzing just these 130 dead animals?

Would these same ecologists spend any time or money investigating fraud in AGW records? Would they spend any moeny investigating 130 dead people who died in Zimbabwe or Sudan?

“This is the second time in three years that walruses have congregated in large numbers on the Alaska shore rather than the edge of the sea ice, which moves north in the summer as temperatures rise and south in the fall as temperatures cool.
“Walruses cannot swim indefinitely and historically have used sea ice as a platform for diving in the Bering and Chukchi seas for clams and other food on the ocean floor.
“In recent years, however, sea ice has receded far beyond the outer continental shelf forcing walruses to choose between riding the ice over waters too deep to reach clams or onto shore. New research Thursday showed the ice cap this summer was slightly larger than in 2007 or 2008. But scientists with the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which released that information, said a slower melt off of sea ice has ocurred in given years before without changing the downward trend of recent decades.”
Anchorage Daily News (17 Sep, 2009), link on 19 Sep WUWT

Climate change is relevant to this story only if it is the reason that they are on shore.”

Nah, climate is always changing. Associating this story with AGW is just hype, propaganda.

And it seems there may be a problem with the Anchorage News story above. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walrus

“In the non-reproductive season (late summer and fall) the walrus tends to migrate away from the ice and form massive aggregations of tens of thousands of individuals on rocky beaches or outcrops. The nature of the migration between the reproductive period and the summer period can be a rather long distance and dramatic.”

It appears normal for Walruses to be away from ice, whether it exists in range or not.
A large population on the North Alaskan beach may be rare, but then again we only have at the moment the news author’s word on that. For effect, see the Wiki picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Walross_kolonie.jpg