VIDEO: Walruses Throng Beach After Sea Ice Melts

On Point has looked at issues of climate change and wildlife disruption — most recently at the impact on beetles and bears. Well, add walruses to this discussion. The Associated Press reported recently:

Tens of thousands of walruses have come ashore in northwest Alaska because the sea ice they normally rest on has melted. Federal scientists say this massive move to shore by walruses is unusual in the United States. But it has happened at least twice before, in 2007 and 2009. In those years Arctic sea ice also was at or near record low levels. The population of walruses stretches "for one mile or more. This is just packed shoulder-to-shoulder," U.S. Geological Survey biologist Anthony Fischbach said in a telephone interview from Alaska. He estimated their number at tens of thousands.

Check out a National Geographic video that looks at the problem: