Breaking: Arctic warmed up again this spring, just as it most likely has for millions of years in a row

Leaving a Warming Arctic - NYTimes.com

The Chukchi is considerably less interesting without ice, and as the Arctic continues to warm, there will be longer ice-free periods. This reduction in sea ice lets more temperate species, like eastern gray whales, summer off Barrow. On my last day at the perch, there was a gray whale feeding just offshore for hours. How reduction in sea ice will affect the bowhead whale is uncertain, but the effect on species that rely on this ice to haul out, hunt and pup (walrus, polar bears and ice seals) is currently of great concern. In addition to loss of habitat through loss of sea ice cover, the opening of the Arctic to increased ship traffic and oil and gas exploration will increase ambient noise levels underwater and increase the real risk of a devastating oil spill in a fragile ecosystem.

We as scientists are trained to be dispassionate in our reporting of scientific facts, but this often belies the deep commitment we have to the study and conservation of the natural world. I would not spend months of my life aboard ships or watching from the ice in the bitter cold if I did not care about the entire ecosystem. It is not just bowhead whales that head to the Arctic in spring: Hundreds of thousands of eiders and long-tailed ducks migrate north, and black guillemots, snowy owls, snow buntings, polar bears, Arctic fox and thousands of beluga whales all begin to show themselves after a long, dark winter. Bearded seals begin their elaborate acoustic displays, and ringed seals crawl out of their ice dens to bask in the sun. It has been a privilege to be a part of the bowhead whale census this spring and to witness the Arctic waking up after a long, dark winter.