Sea ice freezes in Hudson Bay in 2022 Like the 1980s for the 5th time since 2015 – Are you happy with that?
Susan Crockford,
This is the fifth of the past seven years that enough sea ice formed along the west coast of Hudson Bay by mid-November for bears to get out on the ice, like in the 1980s.
One of the independent polar bear instructors on the ground near Churchill had this to say about the bears and freezing conditions this year:
“The bears started leaving on November 10; conservation also cleared the prison on the 10th.
The ‘prison’ is the ‘detention facility’ of the Churchill Polar Bear Warning Program. While Program to warn everyone Not yet released report for this week (gee, I wonder why?), nearby travel apparel Great white bear tour Not only confirmed the bears were released from prison, but also posted a photo of a ‘blue-dotted bear’: a sign that problem bears were released from the holding facility to monitor them. Bears are not released before there is more ice along the coast for them to move out. Great White Bear Tours Already Tracked Bears move abroad.
This information suggests that the average day for bears to leave shore is likely to be November 12-14. again earlier than the 1980s average (November 16 +/- 5 days) (Castro de la Guardia et al. 2017). That means five of the past seven years (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022) since 2015, the bears have left around the same time as the 1980s.
While there are still a few bears on the shores of Wapusk National Park that don’t seem to be in a hurry to leave, a few stray bears doesn’t mean there’s no ice to hunt.
Sea ice conditions on Hudson Bay
Sea ice ranges for the week of November 12, 1971-2022:
This amount of ice is more than the long-term average for this time of year (week of November 14), according to the following CIS comparison chart, where blue is more than average and dark blue is more than average:
What that looks like on Canada’s regular band chart, November 16, 2022:
Bears are not in a hurry to leave the shore
Some bears in good condition don’t appear to be in a hurry to get out on the ice, like the images below from November 12 to 17 on the shores of Wapusk National Park, provided by Explore.org. This phenomenon seems to reflect the reluctance of some bears at the beginning of summer to leave the ice retreat even if there’s very little left.
Only a few WH bears tagged by Andrew Derocher’s team have left shore before 11/11 and he has not updated this information yet. As he has done in the past, chances are he won’t post another track map until all the bears are offshore, so we won’t be able to tell when most of them leave. . But maybe he will surprise us this year.
Presenter
Castro de la Guardia, L., Myers, PG, Derocher, AE, Lunn, NJ, Terwisscha van Scheltinga, AD 2017. The sea ice cycle west of Hudson Bay, Canada, from a polar bear’s perspective. Flow of marine ecology 564: 225–233. http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v564/p225-233/
Related
