Whalers say it’s harder to find the thick, flat ice crews rely on to support the bowhead whales they pull in. Tools like the whaling maps and radar images help make whaling safer.
Josh Jones, researcher with UAF’s Geophysical Institute and International Arctic Research Center, tows a sled of equipment that measures sea ice thickness along the coast of Utqiaġvik on April 22, 2024. On a foggy afternoon in April, scientists Matt Druckenmiller and Josh Jones revved a pair of snow machines to the edge of the shorefast sea ice, the wide sheet of ice connected to the coastline off Utqiaġvik.
For Druckenmiller, who has been studying this ice since he was a graduate student in 2007, the landscape of jagged ice shards and boulders seemed flatter than usual. Utqiaġvik’s shorefast ice formed within the last six months, and in another few months, it’s likely to completely disappear.Multi-year ice, sea ice that sticks around through the summer and into the next winter is also becoming rare.Every spring, Druckenmiller and Jones spend a few weeks in Utqiaġvik monitoring ice thickness along the sprawling network of whaling trails the community builds and relies on.
“I think that’s one thing that AAOKH has made a difference in, to really listen and understand what we can do today to start meeting those needs,” she said. They send the maps out on social media, email them to whaling captains and drop printed copies around town. Adams and other whalers have helped support the mapping efforts for nearly two decades by sharing sea ice knowledge and identifying trails. Adams said it’s a good example of science and traditional knowledge partnering to protect subsistence resources.
Jones said they know these tools are helpful because they get a flood of texts and emails whenever the site crashes.
National Snow And Ice Data Center Utqiagvik
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