Susan Crockford
The Polar wildlife report is a peer-reviewed summary of the latest information on polar fauna, relative to historical records, based on a 2022 review of the scientific literature and media reports. It is intended for a wide audience, including scientists, teachers, students, decision-makers and the general public interested in animals living in Arctic and Antarctic habitats, including polar bears. , killer whales, krill and penguins.
Polar wildlife thrives in 2022
London, February 27: A prominent Canadian zoologist says that wildlife in the Arctic and Antarctic will continue to thrive in 2022 despite predictions of impending disaster.
inside Polar Wildlife Report 2022published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) on International Polar Bear DayZoologist Dr Susan Crockford explains that Arctic and Antarctic ice-dependent species show no signs of imminent population breakdown due to lack of sea ice.
The Crockford report reveals that there are no reports by 2022 that polar wildlife is suffering due to reduced sea ice levels: no polar bears or starving walruses, no seals dead on the beach, no obvious decline in great whale numbers, no drowning baby penguins.
While a number of species of Antarctic penguins and Antarctic spear whales appear to have suffered population declines in recent times, these species are unrelated to the sea ice cover in Antarctica. Southern Ocean. Similarly, in the Arctic, a recent 27% decrease in polar bear populations in West Hudson Bay was found to be unrelated to sea ice conditionss in the past five years.
Indeed, contrary to all expectations, important winter sea ice in Antarctica was ascending since 1979. While experts on sea ice have long care to speak ups that the computer model of future Antarctic sea ice coverage is severely flawed, biologists concerned about the future of ice-dependent emperor penguins and Antarctic krill have continued to use them to justify projections. speculations of those who cause panic.
Crockford concludes: “In both the Arctic and Antarctic, less sea ice in the summer means increased primary productivity, which means more food for all animals. This partly explains why polar wildlife continues to thrive, even in areas where summer sea ice cover is greatly reduced.”
Crockford, SJ 2023. Polar wildlife report. Summary of Global Warming Policy 63, London. pdf This.
Main results
- There are no reports by 2022 that polar wildlife is suffering due to reduced sea ice levels; In both the Arctic and Antarctic, less summer sea ice and increased primary productivity over the past two decades have meant more food for all animals, which partly explains why. why polar wildlife thrive.
- Arctic sea ice in summer has decreased since 1979, but has generally trended flat since 2007; coverage is again much below average in the Barents and Chukchi Seas in 2022, where consistently high primary productivity has provided ample food for wildlife; Winter ice cover in 2022 is slightly lower than in 2020 but overall has shown a relatively stable trend since 2011.
- There are about 32,000 polar bears living on ice worldwide, with many potential flaws; A survey of polar bears in the Western Hudson Bay in 2021 produced a 27% population decline since 2016, but this did not correlate with a lack of sea ice. A genetically distinct polar bear population was found to be thriving in SE Greenland, and the western Barents sea bear (Norway) is still doing well despite the most severe loss of sea ice in summer in all arctic regions.
- Atlantic walrus numbers remain low, but are recovering in the Barents Sea and eastern North America. A new estimate of the population of Pacific walruses in 2019 shows that more than 200,000 exist in the Chukchi/Bering Sea area. Many killer whales have been reported to visit the Canadian Eastern Arctic, and in Alaska and the Western Canadian Arctic, bowhead whales are thriving.
- The extent of sea ice in Antarctica has remained virtually unchanged since 1979: significant winter ice amounts have generally increased slightly while summer ice volumes have decreased slightly (with a low in December 2022), all while overall primary productivity increased. A new sea ice prediction model acknowledges previous errors and doesn’t predict future decline until 2050 at the earliest.
- Krill are important prey for many species of wildlife (especially large numbers of whales and penguins) that live or feed in the Southern Ocean. Future intensification of commercial mollusk fishing (largely for farm-raised fish) may represent the greatest conservation threat to local wildlife, given recent geopolitical tensions. This is for effective fisheries management.
- The numbers of fin whales, blue whales, humpbacks and southern right whales feeding in Antarctic waters in the summer have increased in recent years and while beak populations appear to have declined, An estimated 500,000 individuals are still frequent in this area.
- Killer whales (orcas) are the top predator in the Southern Ocean, and most populations appear to be thriving. The IUCN lists all Antarctic ice-dependent seal species as ‘least concern’.
- Several species of albatross and albatross are considered ‘vulnerable’ by the IUCN due to deadly interactions with long-distance trawlers that fish for Antarctic toothfish (Patagonian sea bass), while overfishing Cod-like species levels and herring-like Antarctic silverfish are also a concern.
- Emperor penguins, the largest penguin species and are heavily dependent on ice, are classified as ‘Threatened’ on the US List of Endangered Species in 2022 but remain at ‘ Near Threatened’ according to the IUCN Red List because of the large size of their breeding populations and acknowledging the uncertainty of future sea ice projections.
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