We recently covered the efforts of scientists aboard the “Professor Multanovskiy,” a 235-foot Russian icebreaker-turned-research vessel, who embarked on a cruise through the icy waters of the Bering Sea to gather information about Pacific walruses. They sent us an update that research has been slow going, impeded by strong weather, but with a surprising twist by some polar bears.
Patrick Lemons, biologist aboard the ship tells us, “Weather has been poor since boarding the ship on the 28th of May. After two and half days of transit we reached the marginal sea ice zone just north of the Bering Strait. We found a small weather window late Saturday and got out to sample animals. We collected approximately 75 biopsy samples and satellite-tagged 4 animals in 6 hours; not bad for a first day of work with many new field crew members. These samples represent the first of what we hope are many collected from walruses in Russian waters.
Interestingly, in the last 24 hours we’ve encountered 12 polar bears along the ice edge, all looking fat and healthy. This number exceeds the total number of polar bears encountered in either of the previous two years’ effort.”
They are still having a rough go of it, with 35-knot winds limiting their ability to spot walruses, but if there are any more updates we’ll keep you posted.
