Increased Bering Sea Ice explains prehistoric Fur Seal Rookeries

Published: October 3, 2007, 6:00 am

The Bering Sea provides critical habitat for many species of marine mammals, including seals, sea lions and whales The predictable formation and movement of sea ice is a defining feature of this habitat, although new evidence suggests that only a few thousand years ago, during a period of cold climate known as the Neoglacial, much more ice filled the Bering Sea and stayed around longer.Records show that for more than 100 years, sea ice has retreated from its southern-most position around the Pribilof Islands by May and cleared the Bering Strait by June, allowing northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) to use the Pribilofs as pupping grounds and various species of whales to migrate into Arctic waters to feed over the summer.In the September 2007 issue of The Holocene, archaeozoologists Drs. Susan Crockford and Gay Frederick (Pacific Identifications Inc., Victoria, B.C., Canada), present evidence from an archaeological site on Unalaska Island (known as Amaknak Bridge )

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