Susan Crockford
A broad band of sea ice is jammed up against the western shore of Hudson Bay, hanging on despite warm mid-July temperatures. Its unusual thickness suggests it won’t be gone anytime soon, which means most Western Hudson Bay polar bears will likely remain offshore for at least a few more weeks.
The dark blue in the “departure from normal” chart below shows just how unusual this phenomenon is for the northern reaches of Hudson Bay:
Sea ice thickness
For the week of 15 July 2024, sea ice on Hudson Bay is still at least 1m thick (medium green) but up to 2m thick in places (dark green). The thickest ice extends into Foxe Basin to the north:
Polar bears on ice
Bears tagged by University of Alberta researchers are almost all still on the ice — only two have come ashore so far:
As I remarked last week, it’s getting harder and harder for polar bear specialists to ignore the fact that their assumptions about sea ice concentration and polar bear behaviour during the ice-melt season was flat-out wrong. This year, some WH bears could again remain on the ice until August, despite what has been, on paper, the earliest breakup year on record for Hudson Bay sea ice.
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