As of Monday (19 July), more polar bears had come ashore near Churchill and on the shores of Wakusp National Park but some are still out on the bay. The…
Category: Polar Bears
As much Beaufort Sea polar bear habitat at mid-July 2021 as there was in 1982
Beaufort Sea ice coverage is about average for this time of year, again failing to decline in lock-step with other Arctic regions. Will there be lots of fat bears onshore…
Polar bears have begun to come ashore on Western Hudson Bay
So far, the first evidence I’ve seen of a bear ashore in Western Hudson Bay was one photographed near Churchill Manitoba on 28 June (below).
Constant dire predictions have been an attempt to counter effective criticism of polar bears as AGW icon, says outgoing PBSG chair
In an unexpected statement, Dag Vongraven (the out-going Chairman of the Polar Bear Specialist Group) suggests that much of the incessant dire warnings of doom about the future of polar…
Polar bear habitat update and the progress of breakup on Hudson Bay
From Polar Bear Science Posted on June 17, 2021 At mid-month, there is still an abundance of thick first year ice over much of Hudson Bay, suggesting that – yet again…
Polar bear habitat in Canada at the first week of June sees widening of critical polynyas
Winds primarily cause the apparent sea ice ‘breakup’ in late spring through the widening of persistent polynyas and shore leads. This year the development of critical open water areas in…
New survey estimates 10x as many polar bears in Russian section of Chukchi Sea as in USA portion
While admitting that using fixed aircraft and heat-detecting technology for the first time in this count presented a number of challenges, the authors propose the method could yield better results…
Activist heads explode as USFWS says oil activities pose minimal risk to polar bears in AK
From Polar Bear Science Posted on May 30, 2021 | Apparently, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) under Joe Biden agrees with my conclusion that oil company activities in Alaska pose minimal risk…
Wandering polar bears are the new starving polar bears, falsely blamed on climate change
This means that the ‘scientists’ quoted below by The Times were making up nonsense for the media, who apparently didn’t think to question it. ‘Polar bear treks 1,500 miles south…
How are polar bears doing 15 years after the IUCN declared them ‘vulnerable’ to extinction?
What we’ve learned over the last 15 years is that polar bears only require sea ice until about mid-May or mid-June (depending on the latitude) and again in the late…
Death of prominent Canadian polar bear biologist a tragic loss to science
As a current member of the international Polar Bear Specialist Group, which looks at polar bear population management worldwide, Dyck remained an “outspoken” force for community-based polar bear management in…
Earth Day 2021: celebrate abundant sea ice habitat for polar bear feeding and mating
Late April is the height of the most important polar bear feeding and mating season and there is abundant sea ice habitat across the Arctic for doing both.
Less than usual ice conditions off Labrador have meant very few polar bear sightings
The ice came early to Labrador in 2019 and continued to be be relatively heavy throughout the spring. There was lighter ice in 2020 but not as late and light…
Choose verifiable facts over emotional narratives on polar bear conservation
“Polar bears continue to be described as ‘canaries in the coal mine’ for the effects of human-caused climate change, but the evidence shows they are far from being a highly-sensitive…
Will low sea ice threaten harp seals & polar bears on Canada’s East Coast this year?
There is no way to sugar-coat this: there wasn’t much ice off the East Coast in early February, which was shaping up to be as bad or worse than the…
Not a myth: State of the Polar Bear Report shows 2020 was another good year for polar bears
As Crockford’s report reveals, plankton growth – the critical health measure of marine life in the Arctic – reached record highs in August 2020. More plankton (‘primary productivity’) due to…
Fact: polar bears are thriving despite sea ice loss according to the scientific literature
Is Facebook now an expert on polar bear conservation status? Apparently they have decreed themselves the last word for online content. There is a plan afoot to label anything that…
Polar bear sea ice habitat highs and lows in early February
Sea ice across the Arctic in the first week of February is a mix of highs and lows. Bering Sea is back up to almost normal coverage, as is the…
Polar bears can come ashore any time of year and cause trouble: a timely reminder
If you thought polar bears were only a danger to people in summer when sea ice is low, think again. Bears do occasionally come ashore early to mid-winter looking for…
More food for Polar Bears: Arctic report card 2020 highlights the huge benefit of less summer sea ice
As well as summarizing sea ice changes, NOAA’s 2020 Arctic Report Card features two reports that document the biggest advantage of much less summer sea ice than there was before…
