As climate change and oil companies encroach on the Arctic Chukchi Sea, two university professors are joining a team of scientists to venture out to this isolated ecosystem and see what habitats may be in danger.
Lee Cooper and Jackie Grebmeier of the university’s Center for Environmental Science have joined a five-year, $5.6 million study of the Chukchi Sea’s Hanna Shoal — a shallow, 30-mile-long area off the coast of northwestern Alaska. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management funded the study to determine how ecosystems in the area currently function and how environmental changes are impacting its biodiverse resources.
Cooper said the Shell Oil Company plans to search for oil in offshore drilling sites close to the Hanna Shoal area — a zone that is a vital component for bowhead whales’ migration and walruses’ food sources — starting this summer. Bowhead whales are listed under the Endangered Species Act and walruses are considered to be threatened due to the melting ice.
According to Cooper, these ecosystems have been virtually untouched by human hands until now.
“It’s an area that’s understudied,” he said. “The tracking that people have done of both the bowheads and the walruses indicate that both of these animals spend a lot of time out in this area so there was an interest.”
And with climate changes melting more and more Arctic ice, environmental preservation groups have voiced concern that these habitats are dwindling.
“The rate of ice loss over the past three years is accelerating and it is important that we understand the biological responses that are taking place,” the study’s lead investigator Ken Dunton, who is also a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote in an email.
In August, Cooper and Grebmeier will embark on a 20-day summer expedition to collect data samples of water, animals and sediments. The research team is negotiating with the U.S. Coast Guard to secure its largest ship, the 420-foot Healy — a polar icebreaker built specifically for arctic research.
Different members of the team will focus on various scientific endeavors, ranging from physics to biology.
Grebmeier — who will serve as the team’s lead scientist on the expedition — will focus her research on buried food sources for walruses, gray whales and bearded seals while Cooper gathers information on the organic carbon content of sediments. Other researchers will interpret their data into geographic information systems maps, Grebmeier said.
Cooper and Grebmeier said incorporating the local communities — within both Maryland and Alaska — was key for educational outreach. Cooper said an elementary school teacher from La Plata was able to join them on a previous cruise in 2010, and she was able to relay her findings to her class.
In Alaska, the researchers are able to interact with the communities personally.
“We go into their schools to convey what the science is and address some of their local questions,” Grebmeier said.
The small communities off the coast of Alaska, many of which rely on the Chukchi Ocean for food, are among those who are against the planned offshore drilling sites, which would include a pipeline that would run through their towns, Cooper said.
“This is an area where if you go up there and visit some of these local communities, they don’t have supermarkets, and there aren’t even cars,” he said.
However, Cooper said as scientists it was important for the researchers to not let political views skew their data reports.
“I think one of the challenges is trying to remain objective about the science that we’re doing and allowing it to contribute to policy makers making decisions, while at the same time providing information that’s useful to help the government as well as local people,” he said.
marcot@umdbk.com
