Early Sea Ice Retreat Baffles Alaska Native Hunters - ADN

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Ice's unusually early retreat hinders community hunts
HARVEST: Hunters tell of strange conditions, easily spooked whales.
By DOUG O'HARRA
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: November 24, 2003)

The early retreat of ice in the Bering and Chukchi seas last spring set the stage for a difficult harvest of beluga whales by many subsistence hunters. "The whales came early. Very early," said Julius Rexford, a leading hunter from Point Lay. He was speaking to the Alaska Beluga Whale Committee, which met in Anchorage last week.

In a banquet room at the Hotel Captain Cook, beneath the painting of a sailing ship, hunter after hunter described a marine world where rotting ice and warm water skewed the movements of whales and seals. They talked of strange conditions, of animals that seemed spooked, of whales that dived and disappeared as boats approached.

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Early loss of ice can be devastating to hunters because it changes the timing and movements of animals that seek the ice edge for food, safety and habitat, Frost said. "You hear a theme going around the table here: 'The ice is different,' " added Gay Sheffield, a state biologist and researcher who works closely with hunters in the Bering Strait region. "If you had a meeting of seal hunters, you'd hear the same things."

One Koyuk hunter described how Norton Sound belugas would dive underwater as boats approached, then disappear from sight. In Kotzebue Sound, once a reliable source of beluga meat and muktuk, almost no whales showed at all, said Willie Goodwin. "We didn't get any, not even with nets," he told the group. "Those that were sighted were in pretty small bunches, so we don't know what's happening." At Point Lay, a seal hunter was amazed to see a pod of white whales and gray youngsters cruising north, two weeks ahead of the traditional July 4 hunt. He radioed people in the village on his marine radio as he stood on a sand spit, Rexford said."

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http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/4434468p-4424077c.html

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