{"id":289393,"date":"2023-12-01T09:58:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T08:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=289393"},"modified":"2023-12-01T09:58:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-01T08:58:51","slug":"western-hudson-bay-polar-bears-on-their-way-offshore-to-hunt-seals-freeze-up-has-begun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=289393","title":{"rendered":"Western Hudson Bay polar bears on their way offshore to hunt seals: freeze-up has begun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Official confirmation<\/a>\u00a0has come in this morning that polar bears that have spent the summer fasting along Western Hudson Bay now have enough ice to move offshore. That makes this year\u00a0a bit later than usual<\/a>\u00a0(average is 16 November) but is not one of the extremely late freeze-ups,\u00a0as happened in 1981, 2016 and 2021<\/a>\u00a0when bears didn\u2019t leave until the first week of December (Castro de la Guardia et al. 2017; Miller et al. 2022). Since breakup of sea ice came earlier than usual this summer, this means (as of 30 November) many bears will have been off the ice and without food for 166 days or 5.5 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

However, so far, there have been no reports from this region of incidents of cannibalism<\/a>, starving bears<\/a> found wandering the landscape like zombies, or desperate attacks<\/a> on people that polar bear specialists<\/a> have warned us to expect<\/a> (Abrahms et al. 2023; Stirling and Derocher 2012; Wilder et al. 2017).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracking WH Bears<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtesy Andrew Derocher, University of Alberta, who monitors WH bears:<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Close-up of the tracking map below. Note that pregnant females will stay ashore to give birth so not all of these tagged bears are expected to head onto the ice this fall to hunt for seals:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Still not a word from the Polar Bear Alert folks in Churchill<\/a>, who as of today, haven\u2019t released any of their weekly reports since 23 October 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ice Conditions in Canada<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 30 November 2023, courtesy\u00a0Canadian Ice Services<\/a>\u00a0shows the expanding band of ice developing along the western shore of Hudson Bay but note also that the rest of the Canadian Arctic, as well as the\u00a0Beaufort\u00a0<\/a>Sea, is completely covered in ice, as is most of\u00a0Baffin Bay<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Foxe Basin<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Abrahms, B., Carter, N.H., Clark-Wolf, T.J., et al. 2023.<\/strong> Climate change as a global amplifier of human\u2013wildlife conflict. Nature Climate Change<\/em> 13:224-234. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41558-023-01608-5<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castro de la Guardia, L., Myers, P.G., Derocher, A.E., Lunn, N.J., Terwisscha van Scheltinga, A.D. 2017.<\/strong> Sea ice cycle in western Hudson Bay, Canada, from a polar bear perspective. Marine Ecology Progress Series<\/em> 564: 225\u2013233. http:\/\/www.int-res.com\/abstracts\/meps\/v564\/p225-233\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller, E.N., Lunn, N.J., McGeachy, D., and Derocher, A.E. 2022.<\/strong> Autumn migration phenology of polar bears (Ursus maritimus<\/em>) in Hudson Bay, Canada. Polar Biology<\/em> 45:1023-1034.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stirling, I. and Derocher, A.E. 2012.<\/strong> Effects of climate warming on polar bears: a review of the evidence. Global Change Biology<\/em> 18(9): 2694\u20132706.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilder, J.M., Vongraven, D., Atwood, T., et al. 2017. <\/strong>Polar bear attacks on humans: implications of a changing climate. Wildlife Society Bulletin<\/em> 41(3):537-547.  https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/wsb.783<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From polarbearscience Official confirmation\u00a0has come in this morning that polar bears that have spent the summer fasting along Western Hudson Bay now have enough ice to move offshore. That makes this year\u00a0a bit later than usual\u00a0(average is 16 November) but is not one of the extremely late freeze-ups,\u00a0as happened in 1981, 2016 and 2021\u00a0when bears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":289402,"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":"Official confirmation\u00a0has come in this morning that polar bears that have spent the summer fasting along Western Hudson Bay now have enough ice to move offshore. ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"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":[691818251,691818895,691820789],"class_list":["post-289393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-polar-bears","tag-sea-ice","tag-western-hudson-bay","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/00Polar-Bear-Paul-Nicklen-NG.jpg?fit=1190%2C785&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1dhD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":266535,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=266535","url_meta":{"origin":289393,"position":0},"title":"Natural flexibility explains W Hudson Bay polar bear movements at breakup better than climate change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Hudson Bay in early July this year is a mosaic of more-than-average and less-than-average sea ice coverage but apparently, only the less-than-average ice areas constitute the \u201cearly breakup\u201d caused by climate change, and only \u201cdeniers\u201d would say otherwise.","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\/2023\/07\/image-279.png?fit=1200%2C817&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-279.png?fit=1200%2C817&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-279.png?fit=1200%2C817&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-279.png?fit=1200%2C817&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-279.png?fit=1200%2C817&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":239391,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=239391","url_meta":{"origin":289393,"position":1},"title":"Recent paper on W. Hudson Bay polar bears includes new official sea ice freeze-up data","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/13\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Even though it\u2019s in graph form only, we finally have an update on sea ice freeze-up dates for Western Hudson Bay for 2016-2020 (but not breakup dates).","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-568.png?fit=1009%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-568.png?fit=1009%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-568.png?fit=1009%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-568.png?fit=1009%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":290645,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=290645","url_meta":{"origin":289393,"position":2},"title":"Despite hand-wringing about Churchill polar bears this year, 2023 wasn\u2019t their worst summer","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"For months, the media has been bleating about the poor polar bears of Churchill suffering from lack of sea ice blamed on human-caused climate change during the so-called\u00a0\u2018hottest year\u2019 on record: in\u00a0April,\u00a0July,\u00a0August,\u00a0November, and\u00a0December.","rel":"","context":"In \"2023\"","block_context":{"text":"2023","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=2023"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-201.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-201.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-201.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-201.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/image-201.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":267566,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=267566","url_meta":{"origin":289393,"position":3},"title":"Hudson Bay sea ice loss has not accelerated since 2014: in fact, summer ice cover has improved","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/15\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This is only the third year since 2014 that the bay has had less than usual amounts of ice, which means most years since then have had normal or nearly normal ice coverage, similar to the 1980s. Hardly the\u00a0ever-worsening catastrophe\u00a0of sea ice loss story being spun in the media for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hudson Bay\"","block_context":{"text":"Hudson Bay","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=hudson-bay"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":265498,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=265498","url_meta":{"origin":289393,"position":4},"title":"Early sea ice breakup in W Hudson Bay caused by \u201crecord breaking\u201d warmth in 2023 but not 2015?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"According to\u00a0Polar Bears International, the \u201c3rd-earliest\u201d breakup date for Western Hudson Bay was caused by a \u201crecord breaking\u201d heat wave in May. Western Hudson Bay sea ice hit the 30% coverage threshold used by PBI to define \u201cbreakup\u201d on 17 June this year, prompting speculation about potential future impacts on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bears Onshore\"","block_context":{"text":"Bears Onshore","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bears-onshore"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIGP-3.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIGP-3.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIGP-3.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/0OIGP-3.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":257313,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=257313","url_meta":{"origin":289393,"position":5},"title":"Polar bears in W. Hudson Bay are in good shape, says researcher. So are numbers really falling?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/13\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"We\u2019ve got ourselves another round of field data\u2013i.e., facts\u2013not fitting the\u00a0polar-bears-are-starving-to-death\u00a0narrative. According to polar bear specialist Andrew Derocher, Western Hudson Bay polar bears his team saw in April while installing collars and ear tags were in\u00a0good shape\u00a0this year, as he said they were\u00a0last year.","rel":"","context":"In \"plar bears\"","block_context":{"text":"plar bears","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=plar-bears"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/00Polar-bears-10.webp?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289393","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=289393"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289404,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289393\/revisions\/289404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/289402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=289393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=289393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=289393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}