Much has been made of the revelation that Charles Monnett is under suspension and investigation related to the issues swirling around drowned polar bears and dubious statistical license used to calculate mortality. I got a request from a reader to locate the poster that started it all. Happy to oblige. See below
Monnett, C., Gleason, J. S., and L. M. Rotterman, 2005. Potential effects of diminished sea ice on open-water swimming, mortality, and distribution of polar bears during fall in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. 16th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, 12-16 December 2005, San Diego, CA.
Here’s the image and full resolution PDF:
MarineMammalConference-Dec2005 (PDF)
A British teenager was killed and several others injured by a Polar bear just the other day in Norway (it’s all over the British press if anyone wants to check). Those bears are as cuddly as crocodiles.
Was the teen trying to hug the Polar bear, like in the commercial?
Polar bears are the largest, strongest, and toughest bears on the planet. Cuddling is not an option.
I love the comment that the redistribution of bear population could be either (1) being “stranded” on land by melting ice or (2) the disposal of bowhead whale carcasses.
Trying not to be sarcastic, I find it amazing that any one would struggle between the possibilities of the best swimming land mammals being stranded, and one of the best omnivorous scavengers on the planet raiding wouldn’t be motivated by a meat, fat, and bone garbage pile…
I hear they like Coke though…maybe just share some with them for safe passage?
DaveF:
“A British teenager was killed and several others injured by a Polar bear just the other day in Norway…”
But you forgot the punchline. The BBC says this is due to climate change:
“Incidents like this, however, could become more common.
The reason is climate change. As rising temperatures melt the sea ice, the number of polar bears may rapidly dwindle. That could mean that there are far fewer bears surviving for people to come into conflict with. But if polar bear numbers fall, we may revere them even more, with more tourists and adventurers flocking to catch a final glimpse of these animals.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/14422118
Yes, that’s right. Because terrifying climate change is killing all the lovely bears, we will increasingly go out to cuddle them, and get killed. Really. That’s the BBC.
You walk out you door, and find a dollar in the street. You pick up the dollar, and look both ways for another dollar. You don’t see any, so you go back in your house.
You’re a climate scientist so, you write a report that says that you found a dollar, and could see 100 feet in each direction, so there’s got to be on average a dollar every 200′. You then publish a paper claiming that it’s SCIENCE!!! that there are $25 laying around on every mile.
The logic’s impeccable.
Seems odd that 7 years of averaging on sea ice observations yields *ONLY* 1 observation for nearly all points observed. It’s like nature said, “You shall only have 1 possibility.” And if the sea ice is so rare in that area in September for so many years, why record the absence? It seems like you’d rather note the presence of ice.
They also seem to be melding different years of observations without attribution (though it is only a poster, so it’s no big deal really). In the comparisons between where polar bears are found, they are using work that is clearly not their own (since admittedly their own is from 97-2004).
Fortunately, a leader/guide of the group of teens had a gun, and fetched it after the bear attack began. Unfortunately, they had not posted sentries despite having seen a bear. An explosive trip-wire failed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14415592
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8687292/Norway-polar-bear-attack-failings-that-left-Horatio-Chapple-at-bears-mercy.html
Polar Bear cubs are cute and cuddly.
Fully grown, they are the largest carnivores on the planet!
Louis 11:46:
No, they were all asleep in their tents; the trip wire that was supposed to set off a small explosive didn’t work; none of the four rounds in the Mauser k98k rifle went off when fired – the instructor had to re-use one of them and this time it worked and killed the bear. If they had been more competent nobody would have been hurt, not even the poor bear (which was just doing what bears do).
James Evans 12:04:
Thanks, James, I hadn’t seen that. Why am I not surprised, though?
Best wishes to you both.
Louis says:
August 8, 2011 at 11:46 am
“Was the teen trying to hug the Polar bear, like in the commercial?”
Louis, that comment may appear to be funny but believe me it is not.
I (here in Dublin, Ireland) have been following this tragedy where a young man with obvious great potential was tragically killed by a polar bear and several of his companions were seriously injured. One of these actually had teeth from the bear embedded in his skull.
A family in the United Kingdom is in mourning for their son and all that you can do is to make pathetic jokes.
Your comment is far worse than that which trolls are so fond of posting on various blogs and it should be deleted by the moderators. Even trolls would not be so crass.
Total and absolute shame on you.
Perhaps others who read here and post comments might try to remember this young man.
Actually, Polar Bears are the only modern bear that is 100% carnivorous, while all other bears are closer to being omnivorous. Remember, you are meat. The opposite viewpoint of course, is “with Polar Bear numbers on the rise, incidents of this type will become more common, as tourists seek closer contact”!
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1ea8233f-14da-4a44-b839-b71a9e5df868
http://www.redstate.com/kjl291/2009/06/28/polar-bear-population-on-the-rise-according-to-scientist-not-declining-%E2%80%93-as-the-al-gore-crowd-tells-everyone-polar-bear-expert-barred-from-testifying/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138346,00.html
Polar Bears are also cannibals in the true sense of the word, actively hunting and killing their own kind.
Speaking of climate change and polar bears, there was a horrifying incident at Barrow, AK when a polar bear attacked and killed the National Weather Service employee launching a weather balloon.
@ur momisugly James Evans August 8, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Unbelievable! If it weren’t such a tragic waste of space, time, ink and paper, it would be funny.
re: Mike Smith
Along those lines…polar bears were a big concern on the DEW line when it came to deciding whether to take a temperature reading or not.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/07/17/fabricating-temperatures-on-the-dew-line/
On the Svalbard archipelago carrying a rifle outside of settlements is mandatory. You pay a hefty fine if officials meet you not carrying a gun. So it’s not a fortunate coincidence that they had rifles, they were bound to. Tragic that it didn’t work out for whatever reason.
Charles S. Opalek, PE says:
“Fully grown, they are the largest carnivores on the planet!”
Naah – just the largest land-based carnivores.
Sperm whales are much, MUCH bigger. As in 25 times the size of the biggest polar bear ever found.
I don’t see any dead polar bear in that picture….
Peter Walsh says:
August 8, 2011 at 12:38 pm
“Perhaps others who read here and post comments might try to remember this young man.”
While the loss of the life of a young man is tragic, I cannot also help feeling that the shooting of a polar bear doing what comes natural while in it’s own natural environment that has been invaded by humans is even more so.
Mike Smith
August 8, 2011 at 12:43 pm
Speaking of climate change and polar bears, there was a horrifying incident at Barrow, AK when a polar bear attacked and killed the National Weather Service employee launching a weather balloon.
###
One of my NCOIC was stationed in Alaska during the 60’s. He has nasty scars on his back and on his arm, and a bear skin rug on his floor. He’s lucky to be alive. The short lived mauling came after the bear had taken the four slugs that eventually killed him.
The danger that polar bears present is why the population of polar bears around Churchill is the highest it has been since the ’40s: the army at the Churchill DEW station shot those wandering around the base and the Churchill garbage dump, that is the ones the visiting generals etc. didn’t shoot for sport.
Every year 700 bears are legally hunted. An unknown number are poached. No apparent problem, but find 4 “drowned” and there is uproar. Do I smell the stench of double standards?
The people who lead that Arctic camping trip and didn’t bring a dog/s along should be charged with Criminal Stupidity.
I used to live in the Arctic and a BIG rule was always bring the dogs . . . best Polar Bear trip wire you can get.
The only way you’ll get time to use the rifle.
Tom in Florida says:
August 8, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Peter Walsh says:
August 8, 2011 at 12:38 pm
“Perhaps others who read here and post comments might try to remember this young man.”
While the loss of the life of a young man is tragic, I cannot also help feeling that the shooting of a polar bear doing what comes natural while in it’s own natural environment that has been invaded by humans is even more so.
Tom, I do agree with you but you misquoted me in that you only copied and pasted part of my comment.
Here is the completer comment:
I (here in Dublin, Ireland) have been following this tragedy where a young man with obvious great potential was tragically killed by a polar bear and several of his companions were seriously injured. One of these actually had teeth from the bear embedded in his skull.
A family in the United Kingdom is in mourning for their son and all that you can do is to make pathetic jokes.
Your comment is far worse than that which trolls are so fond of posting on various blogs and it should be deleted by the moderators. Even trolls would not be so crass.
Total and absolute shame on you.
Perhaps others who read here and post comments might try to remember this young man.
Now, please comment on the full comment and don’t be selective.