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Scientists tracking impact of climate change using teeth of beluga whales, walrus

By: Chinta Puxley, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Posted: 01/10/2009 12:30 PM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

WINNIPEG - Researchers are hoping the huge tusks of the walrus and choppers of the beluga whale will help track the increasing impact of global warming on Canadian Arctic mammals and the Inuit communities that depend on the creatures for food.

Scientists with Fisheries and Oceans Canada in Winnipeg are preparing to study the teeth of mammals killed during Inuit hunts to look for any signs that greenhouse gases are taking a toll.

Although scientists have studied the teeth - which have annular rings similar to those of a tree trunk - for many years, this is the first time they are being used to unlock the impact climate change is having in the North.

Experts expect to find a growing number of contaminants like mercury and PCBs in the teeth, as well as evidence of a thinning diet - all attributable to the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

"If we get a hold of teeth, we have a record of what happened in the past," says Steve Ferguson, research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans. "We want to provide some kind of forecast for the future."

The careful analysis of teeth is part of a larger project determining the effects of shrinking sea ice on Arctic mammals like the walrus, beluga whale, polar bears and seals. Once researchers understand how mammals are being affected, they hope to pass on that information to the Inuit communities who rely on the mammals for their food and livelihood.

"They consume these animals as part of their traditional diet so if they're consuming beluga, which has fairly high levels of mercury or PCBs, then the communities are going to want to know what they're being exposed to," says Gary Stern, research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans in Winnipeg. "It's also important to the health of the animals because you want a sustainable population."

Many scientists believe Arctic mammals are among the first to feel the effects of climate change.

Arctic cod are disappearing more rapidly, depriving the Hudson Bay belugas of the fatty nutrients they have traditionally depended upon. These disruptions in the food chain, along with increasing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere and sea ice that releases naturally-occurring toxins as it melts, lead to higher levels of contaminants, Stern says.

The loss of sea ice also means dominant predators such as killer whales are able to travel deeper into the Arctic, threatening everything from fish to larger mammals.

"It's scary how quickly we're losing the ice and how much we're seeing an influx of more temperate species into the Arctic," Ferguson says. "Things are happening that we didn't really think about."

Still, some say there isn't time to wait for another study about the impact of climate change on the Arctic before taking action.

Sarah King, oceans campaigner with Greenpeace in Vancouver, says much of the evidence is already in. The average polar bear weighs about 15 per cent less than it used to and some baby seals are drowning because the ice melts before they are old enough to swim, she says.

King points out that, while climate change in the Arctic continues to be studied, there is a rapidly growing interest in developing mining and off-shore oil in the North.

"If we allow all of these industries into the region, it's going to destroy their remaining habitat, reduce their prey species, interfere with their migration patterns and their feeding sites," she says. "At some point we just have to protect the area and ensure there are no further threats to these species that are already feeling human-induced threats from climate change."

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