{"id":255889,"date":"2023-05-04T11:06:08","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T09:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=255889"},"modified":"2023-05-04T11:06:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T09:06:11","slug":"17th-century-documents-1970s-ice-maps-show-sea-ice-habitat-in-svalbard-has-always-varied-greatly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=255889","title":{"rendered":"17th century documents & 1970s ice maps show sea ice habitat in Svalbard has always varied greatly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Polar bear with her cub in Canadian Arctic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From polarbearscience<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historical records show that sea ice extent along the west coast of Svalbard, Norway varied greatly in the 1600s and that there is currently more ice than was usually present at this time of year in the 17th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

April through early June is when polar bears need sea ice the most<\/a>\u2013for feeding on newborn seals and for finding mates\u2013and so far this spring, bears in the Western European Arctic around Svalbard, Norway have had an abundance of ice. In fact, there is only a little less ice than was normal for the late 1970s and apparently, quite a bit more than was often present in the 1600s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western European Arctic 1975-1979<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Western European Arctic is centered on Svalbard in the Barents Sea but includes the Denmark Strait off East Greenland and western Kara Sea off Novaya Zemlya. The map below shows average ice extent for April in the late 1970s (Degroot 2022: his figure 1). Note how much of Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya are covered in glaciers and how little ice there was around the extreme tip of\u00a0southeast Greenland<\/a>\u00a0(Laidre et al. 2012, 2022).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Barents Sea Arctic ice extent 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note the amount of pack ice butting up against the entire north shore of Svalbard, which wasn\u2019t happening even in the late 1970s. There was more ice along the west shores of Spitsbergen (largest Svalbard island) and Novaya Zemlya, and along the north shore of Russia in the Barents Sea (west of Novaya Zemlya) but otherwise there isn\u2019t a huge amount of difference. There is an abundance of sea ice now as there was then in the spring, when polar bears need it the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how current ice extent looks according to the numbers just for the Svalbard area, against an average of 1991-2020. Note that only one standard deviation is presented (two is standard).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Compare above to previous years, charts saved from the NIS archive for early May in 2009, 2012, and 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Degroot\u2019s research on whaling activities during the 17th century indicates that the west coast of Spitsbergen being largely free of sea ice by early April was the norm even during the Little Ice Age (LIA). As he puts it, on pg. 70 (my bold):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the first decades of the seventeenth century, up to one hundred thousand bowhead whales calved and mated near Jan Mayen early each year. I<\/em>n the spring, the whales migrated northeast along the retreating edge of the vast expanse of congregated sea ice\u2014ice formed by frozen salt water\u2014that constitutes the Arctic ice pack (fig. 1). By early April, they entered feeding grounds in bays along Svalbard\u2019s largest islands, Spitsbergen and Edge\u00f8ya, that were now largely clear of sea ice (fig. 2).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figure 2 from his paper (below) shows that one of the primary \u201cbays\u201d used by bowhead whales included a huge fjord on the northwest coast of Spitsbergen with several entrances that was favoured by whalers, called Smeerenburgfjorden. \u201cHollander\u2019s Bay\u201d marks an important onshore whale processing camp established in the 1600s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Smeerenburgfjorden is today (3 May 2023) inaccessible due to fast and pack ice (closeup of\u00a0NIS chart<\/a>\u00a0below, see extreme upper left corner):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The large island of Edge\u00f8ya in the southeastern portion of the archipelago, mentioned by DeGroot as also being used by whales in the 1600s in early April, is also inaccessible today (3 May 2023), as the closeup ice chart below shows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bottom line: <\/strong>Sea ice extent off the west coast of Svalbard in the Western European Arctic has been highly variable in spring and summer for centuries: some decades had much less ice, some decades had much more. Currently, there is more ice than was present in early May in many years of the 1600s. Amazing how useful a bit of historical perspective can be in cooling down the hot air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Degroot, D. 2022.<\/strong> Blood and bone, tears and oil: Climate change, whaling, and conflict in the seventeenth-century Arctic. <\/strong>The American Historical Review<\/em> 127(1):62\u201399. Open access. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/ahr\/rhac009<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laidre, K.L., Born, E.W., Gurarie, E., Wiig, O., Dietz, R. and Stern, H. 2012.<\/strong> Females roam while males patrol: divergence in breeding season movements of pack ice polar bears (Ursus maritimus<\/em>). Proceedings of the Royal Society B<\/em> 280: 1-10. DOI: 10.1098\/rspb.2012.2371 Open access http:\/\/rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/280\/1752\/20122371<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laidre, K.L., Supple, M.A., Born, E.W., et al. 2022.<\/strong> Glacial ice supports a distinct and undocumented polar bear subpopulation persisting in late 21st century sea-ice conditions. Science <\/em>376(6599):1333-1338.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historical records show that sea ice extent along the west coast of Svalbard, Norway varied greatly in the 1600s and that there is currently more ice than was usually present at this time of year in the 17th century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":255906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819302,691818056,691818744,691818191],"class_list":["post-255889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barents-sea","tag-climate-change","tag-norway","tag-svalbard","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00arctic_5.jpg?fit=3000%2C1976&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-14zf","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":269601,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=269601","url_meta":{"origin":255889,"position":0},"title":"Polar bear habitat around Svalbard Norway above average despite high temps in N. Atlantic","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/26\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Sea ice extent for Svalbard was\u00a0above average yesterday\u00a0and has been\u00a0since 17 July, despite\u00a0\u201crecord-breaking\u201d\u00a0sea surface temperatures in June.","rel":"","context":"In \"Barents Sea\"","block_context":{"text":"Barents Sea","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=barents-sea"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-798.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-798.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-798.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-798.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-798.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":251987,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=251987","url_meta":{"origin":255889,"position":1},"title":"Scientists Say A 6\u00b0C Warmer-Than-Today Arctic Is \u2018Optimal\u2019 For Thermophile Species","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This region is today about 6\u00b0C colder than it was during the early Holocene (~10,000 to 8,000 years ago), a climatic period scientists characterize as an optimum, or \u201cmost favorable,\u201d for a \u201crich species pool\u201d of thermophiles.","rel":"","context":"In \"Artic sea ice\"","block_context":{"text":"Artic sea ice","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=artic-sea-ice"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":424041,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=424041","url_meta":{"origin":255889,"position":2},"title":"Polar bears on Norwegian islands fatter and healthier despite ice loss","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/31\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Norwegian Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard have become fatter and healthier despite significant sea ice loss due to climate change. A study published in Scientific Reports on January 29, 2026, analyzed body condition data from 770 adult polar bears between 1992 and 2019.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIG-2023-10-23T132101.951.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIG-2023-10-23T132101.951.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIG-2023-10-23T132101.951.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIG-2023-10-23T132101.951.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":253804,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=253804","url_meta":{"origin":255889,"position":3},"title":"\u2018Less ice means more conflicts with polar bears\u2019 narrative not supported by scientific evidence","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/20\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This overall reduction in kills, despite greatly reduced sea ice habitat availability and more polar bears spending more time on land, may reflect success of the Svalbard Environmental Act of 2001.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"conflicts\"","block_context":{"text":"conflicts","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=conflicts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0-olar-bear-eating.jpeg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0-olar-bear-eating.jpeg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0-olar-bear-eating.jpeg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0-olar-bear-eating.jpeg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/0-olar-bear-eating.jpeg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":248154,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=248154","url_meta":{"origin":255889,"position":4},"title":"Return of Svalbard sea ice in time for seal births and the polar bear feeding bonanza","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/17\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems that every\u00a0fall\u00a0and\u00a0winter\u00a0for the last decade at least, there has been hand-wringing about the lack of Svalbard sea ice and what a tragedy this is for polar bears.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-591.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-591.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-591.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-591.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image-591.png?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":288557,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=288557","url_meta":{"origin":255889,"position":5},"title":"New Study: Modern Sea Ice Extent Is Nearly The Highest In 9000 Years Across the Arctic","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/25\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"From NoTricksZone By\u00a0Kenneth Richard\u00a0on\u00a020. November 2023 Millennial-scale Arctic sea ice reconstructions do not corroborate alarmist claims of unprecedented sea ice losses in modern times.\u00a0 Using sea ice biomarker proxy (IP25), scientists (Kolling et al., 2023) have determined that the sea ice extent in the Labrador Sea was nearly absent throughout\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Arctic sea ice\"","block_context":{"text":"Arctic sea ice","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=arctic-sea-ice"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0Arctic-sea.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0Arctic-sea.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0Arctic-sea.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0Arctic-sea.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/0Arctic-sea.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=255889"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255908,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255889\/revisions\/255908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/255906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=255889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=255889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=255889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}