A Wales resident shot and killed the bear. With the loss of sea ice and the ocean staying open later in the year, polar bears have been spending more time on land, which increases the chance of human encounters.
December should have sea ice development in Norton Sound. But no sign of ice yet this year. Several storms have moved northward across the western Bering Sea and brought strong winds and bouts of above freezing weather to the Teller area and all of the Bering Strait region.
Wales lost shorefast ice early in the season. Ice along the shore has been crushed and broken. This is a very unusual event for Wales as many of our hunters rely on great ice conditions for whale and other sea mammal catch for food.
Very strong south winds took out all the sea ice and created an ice pile in front of the village.
The weather was warm and the ice was late in coming, so Dennis Davis set up a piece of equipment unknown to his Inupiaq forebears: his drone.
Rough seas and moving sea ice.
As snow machines zoomed past, Dennis Davis set up his new drone. According to Davis, blue ice is more solid than white. Those are areas hunters can travel across more safely as they search for marine mammal prey.
This fall freeze-up was somewhat delayed, not just in the Bering Straits region, but all the way up to Barrow.
Photos and observations of the sheen thought to be caused by a fuel leak in the village of Shishmaref.
South winds blew out most of the sea ice. Going to be bad ice if it refreezes for spring hunt.
By this time of the year, we usually have 2-3 miles of shore-fast ice that sticks to our beach. We as a village have not done our winter harvest of seals and walrus, and we are worried that we will not be able to bowhead whale hunt.
Loss of shoreline and subsistence camps.
10-17-13 No ice fishing yet - Shishmaref, Alaska, USA
The sea is our garden for food and other things.
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