Whaling in Utqiagvik, Alaska has been challenging this year due to unusual sea ice conditions. The winter had an unusually low sea ice maximum extent, resulting in unstable ice and multiple break out events during spring. The lack of multi-year ice in the region may also play a significant role in creating stable safe ice for hunting. Despite the risks, whaling crews are still waiting to catch a whale and no one has been hurt or died during this whaling season. A map of the 2013 Barrow Spring Sea Ice Trails is available on the Seasonal Ice Zone Observing Network website.

Observation: This year has been very challenging for our whalers. We’ve had couple of whaling crews that had to return to shore due to the moving ice. This is a picture of a whaling crew waiting for the ice to hit back to the shore fast ice. What ice does when it’s moving, when there’s a lot of ice like this, but isn’t safe, is, there will be an open lead of water, that will eventually hit more ice, then when it hits, you cross it and there will be another open lead and you wait again for it to hit the next set of ice, and do that over and over until you reach the safe ice. This is what the this whaling crew had to do, they waited and crossed four times, before making it to safe ice. Whaling is challenging to begin with, but with our current ice conditions, it’s risky. But during this time we still praise God that no one has gotten hurt or died during this whaling season. Right now, there are still a couple of whaling crews that are still waiting to catch a whale. Qinugan Roddy

The International Arctic Research Center Consult: Dr. Hajo Eicken, IARC Director, Professor of Geophysics writes, "Unsual sea ice conditions for the hunters of Barrow Alaska: Following a record Arctic summer sea ice minimum in September 2012, this winter had an unusually low sea ice maximum extent. Although this winter maximum was only the fifth lowest on satellite records, this year’s winter sea ice proved to be different and challenging for the hunters of northern Alaska."

"The unusual season started with persistent storms from the west keeping temperatures high and prevented ice formation until early November. The shorefast ice following remained unusually smooth and undeformed. With very few ridges reaching the sea floor the stability of the shorefast ice was lower than usual and resulted in multiple break out events during spring. The unstable ice in combination with few open leads has resulted in a so far unsuccessful hunting season."

"Also notable this year is what appears to be a complete lack of multi-year ice in the region. The local population refers to this ice as piqaluyak, which is used for drinking water during long periods on the ice. Although not critical as a water source, the multi-year ice may play a significant role in creating stable safe ice for hunting. Whether this year will be remembered as an anomaly or as the new normal remains an open question." University of Alaska Fairbanks

NOTE: The 2013 Barrow Spring Sea Ice Trails Map, developed by the Seasonal Ice Zone Observing Network, SIZONET, is available. Learn more about and see other sea ice trail maps at the Sizonet website.