ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Yupik Eskimo village of Kotlik on Alaska's northwest coast relies on a cold, hard blanket of sea ice to protect homes from vicious winter Bering Sea storms.
1 / 3A satellite photo provided by the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geographic Information Network of Alaska shows clouds partially covering open water in the northern Bering Sea, the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea on Monday, March 4, 2019. St. Lawrence Island is in the foreground. Warm winds in mid-February melted or blew off much of the sea ice in the northern Bering Sea, a region historically covered by sea ice throughout the winter.
Winter storm surge flooding is the latest indication that something's off-kilter around the Bering Strait, the gateway from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean. Rapid, profound changes tied to high atmospheric temperatures, a direct result of climate change, may be reordering the region's physical makeup. Ocean researchers are asking themselves if they're witnessing the transformation of an ecosystem.
Sea ice also affects commercially valuable fish. Sea ice historically has created a Bering Sea"cold pool," an east-west barrier of extremely cold, salty water at the bottom of the wide, shallow continental shelf. The wall of cold water historically has concentrated Pacific cod and walleye pollock in the southeastern Bering Sea.
More than half the fish landed in U.S. waters come from the North Pacific, and most are caught in the Bering Sea. Chad See, executive director of the Freezer Longline Coalition, a trade association of vessels that target Pacific cod using baited lines, said members caught their quota last year but had to travel farther north.
Scientists say figuring out the ocean physics is far less of a challenge than projecting the biological ramifications. No one can say why. Seabird experts wonder whether the presence of more pollock and Pacific cod, which have voracious appetites and are far more efficient hunters of forage fish than seabirds, was a factor.
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