ArcticBulletin

Melting peatbogs p. 4–5

Witnessingclimate change p. 7

MappingRussian PAs p. 9

Soot impactsArctic p. 14

Time fortoughlaws

p.12–13

No 3.05 • P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E W W F I N T E R N AT I O N A L A R C T I C P RO G R A M M E

2 WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05

Publisher:WWF International Arctic ProgrammePO Box 6784 St Olavs plass N-0130 Oslo, Norway Ph: +47 22 03 65 00Fax: +47 22 20 06 66 Internet: www.panda.org/arctic

The Arctic Bulletinis published quarterly by the WWFInternational Arctic Programme.Reproduction and quotation withappropriate credit are encouraged.Articles by non-affiliated sources do notnecessarily reflect the views or policiesof WWF. Send change of address andsubscription queries to the address onthe right. We reserve the right to editletters for publication, and assume noresponsibility for unsolicited material.Please include name, title and addresswith all correspondence.

ProgrammeDirector:Samantha Smithssmith@wwf.no

Editor:Julian Woolfordjwoolford@wwf.no

Assistant editor:Nigel Allannallan@wwf.no

Contents

Design and production:dEDBsign/Ketill Bergerketill.berger@eunet.no

Date of publication:October, 2005ISSN 1023-9081

Cover: Alla Innokentivna, aDolgan woman, with her four-year-old son Vassilly, dressed intraditional winter clothing,Taymyr, Northern Siberia,Russia. Photo: Bryan & CherryAlexander Photography /www.arcticphoto.co.uk

Printed at Merkur-Trykk ASon 100% recycled paper.

�Polar bear makes longest recorded swim p. 4–5

�HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco travels to Arctic p. 10

Illegal fishing threatens cod p. 8Ecologically challenged fisheries p. 17–18

� Seabird pollution p. 10–11

Uranium exploration in NWT p. 11 �

�

�

�Oil-free zones and the Norwegian election p. 8

New Russian PA maps p. 9 �

Climate warning as Siberia melts p. 4 �

US politicians see climate warming p. 7�

�Canada opposed to Refuge plan p. 6

�Witnessing climate change p. 7

�Vulnerable polar bears p. 4–5

�New vegetation may accelerate arctic warming p. 6

�New opportunity for conservation-oriented tourism projects p. 8

� Fluorochemicals pollute arctic people and wildlife p. 12–13

� Soot impact on Arctic p. 14

� INTERVIEW:Permafrost not so permanent p. 20

�Connected to the Arctic p. 21–22

�Book reviews p. 22–23

� Forthcoming arctic meetings & events p. 22

�Protected areas in northern Russia p. 24

� Fresh water transforms North Atlantic p. 16–17

�

The mystery of seabird decline p. 15

A plan for the Sahtu p. 18–19

WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 3

Montreal crossroads

Editorial

Every week, more research appears that details

the rapid and huge impacts of a warming

climate on arctic ecosystems.

The world’s polar bear scientists recently

concluded that the conservation status of the polar

bear should be upgraded, from Least Concern to

Vulnerable. The conclusion is based on what they

believe will be a 30 percent decline in the world’s

polar bear population over the next 35 to 50 years.

The main cause of this decline is climatic warming

and the resulting disappearance of sea ice, home to

and key habitat for polar bears (see page 4 this issue).

Another report, which received widespread inter-

national media coverage, came from the National

Snow and Ice Data Center and NASA.

For the fourth consecutive year, US scientists using

satellite data have tracked a stunning reduction in

arctic sea ice at the end of the northern summer. This

year has seen the lowest extent so far recorded, and

the persistence of near-record low extents leads the

group to conclude that Arctic sea ice is on an acceler-

ating, long-term decline. They conclude that if the

current rates of loss of sea ice continue, the summer-

time Arctic could be completely ice-free well before

the end of this century. This goes well beyond the

conclusions of the 250 scientists behind the Arctic

Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), which caused a

sensation when it was released in November last year.

People living in the Arctic, though, don’t need

reports to confirm what they’re seeing with their

own eyes. As we go to press, indigenous peoples from

around the Arctic have just met in Alaska to share

their observations of climate change. They see that

their world is changing fast, so fast that it threatens

traditional ways of life and cultures.

But wait a moment: we can all relax now, can’t we?

The Kyoto Protocol is in force, and emissions of

greenhouse gases are going to go down.

Wrong. The Kyoto Protocol may have been in

force since February, but it is due to expire in 2012.

And greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise: most

industrialized countries are still far above their Kyoto

reduction targets.

This makes the 11th Conference of the Parties on

the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

(COP 11), set to take place in Montreal, Canada at the

end of November, crucial. This is the place where

countries must decide how to deal

with the threat of global warming and

greenhouse gas emissions after 2012.

WWF, along with other environ-

mental NGOs, will be pushing for the

start of an international process that

will lead to greater cuts in greenhouse

gas emissions after 2012. We want an

agreement in place no later than

2008. With major differences of opin-

ions about the right approach

between the US, Europe and devel-

oping countries, and with a total of

190 countries involved, reaching an

agreement will be challenging. It’s vital to start now.

WWF thinks that Parties, to claim success in

Montreal, need to leave with a clear and agreed plan for

negotiating the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol after

2012: a plan that includes the formal start of negotia-

tions, the end date, the Kyoto Protocol as the legal base,

and the issues to be covered in the negotiations.

Securing a future for Kyoto after 2012 is vital for

businesses too. Many of the solutions enabling coun-

tries to meet their commitments under Kyoto are

market-based; emissions trading, for example. Many

large businesses have already begun work on emis-

sions-trading strategies, as have financial companies

and strategy consultants. For this work to bear fruit,

these companies need long-term security. They need

to know what’s happening after 2012. Montreal can

help build that security.

There is no time to lose. The window of opportu-

nity to keep global warming below dangerous levels

is small. Unfortunately it’s even smaller in the Arctic,

and it’s closing fast.

SAMANTHASMITHDirector,WWF InternationalArctic Programme ssmith@wwf.no

4 News WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05

DENMARK CLIMATE PLEAREUTERS – Denmark urged “newthinking” in August about ways tocombat global warming at the startof climate talks by 25 nations inGreenland.“Climate changerepresents a growing globalchallenge,” Danish Foreign MinisterPer Stig Moeller told delegates atthe start of the informal four-daytalks on the island in Ilulissat, northof the Arctic Circle. Denmark hopesthe Greenland meeting will helpprepare for UN talks in Canada inlate November on ways to widenthe Kyoto protocol to include theUnited States and developingnations like China and India after afirst phase running to 2012.

ARCTIC OCEAN ICE-FREE INA CENTURYThe current warming trends in theArctic may push the arctic systeminto a seasonally ice-free state notseen for more than one million years,according to a new report publishedin Eos, the weekly newspaper of theAmerican Geophysical Union. Themelting is accelerating, and a team ofresearchers were unable to identifyany natural processes that might slowthe de-icing of the Arctic.

Jonathan T. Overpeck, Universityof Arizona geoscientist and leadauthor of the report, said:“Thetrouble is we don’t really knowwhere the threshold is beyondwhich these changes are inevitableand dangerous.”

For more information:www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/prrl0530.html

UNIVERSITY OF THE ARCTICOFFERS CLIMATE CHANGECOURSEThe University of the Arctic is set tointroduce a new “Climate ChangeImpacts in the Arctic” course, aspart of its Bachelor of CircumpolarStudies program.The course willdeal with sustainable developmentin the Arctic in order to helpcommunities with environmental,economic and social challenges.Thecourse will be based on the findingsof the Arctic Climate ImpactAssessment, especially in relation tosocieties and communities that areparticularly vulnerable to climatechange. A draft outline andoverview of the curriculum will beavailable at the UN Climate ChangeConference meeting in Montreal inNovember.

The Polar Bear Specialist Group(PBSG) of the World

Conservation Union(IUCN) recently concludedthat the IUCN Red Listclassification of the polarbear should be upgradedfrom Least Concern toVulnerable.

The recommendation isbased on a projected 30percent decline in the polarbear population the next 35to 50 years. The principalcause of this decline isclimatic warming and itsnegative impact on the seaice habitat of polar bears.

In some areas, contami-nants may have an addi-tional negative influence.High levels of PCBs andpesticides have been foundin some polar bear popula-tions.

The Group also calledfor stronger regulation andmonitoring of harvestlevels. Greenland will beregulating a quota systemas of 2006. However, thereis still no regulation onhunting in north-easternRussia.

The Group has alsoconcluded that increases inharvest levels or estimates

of sub-population sizeshould not be based solelyon traditional ecologicalknowledge withoutsupport from sound scien-tific data. They also advisethat quotas should be setaccording to the precau-tionary principle.

There are estimated tobe about 20 to 25,000 polarbears in the Arctic. Therehas already been somedecline in sub-populations.In Canada’s westernHudson Bay, for example,the polar bear populationhas fallen from 1200 to1000. Scientists there arelooking at possible linksbetween climate changeand the population size.The results of this work areexpected later this year.

The PBSG is made up of polar bear specialistsfrom Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Norway, Russiaand the United States. Thegroup meets every three tofive years to review polarbear research that has takenplace around the Arctic inrecent years and review theworldwide status of polarbears.

Nigel Allan,nallan@wwf.no

The world’s largest frozen peat bog ismelting. An area stretching for a millionsquare kilometres across the permafrost

of western Siberia is turning into a mass ofshallow lakes as the ground melts, accordingto Russian researchers just back from theregion.

The sudden melting of a bog the size ofFrance and Germany combined couldunleash billions of tonnes of methane, a

potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.The news of the dramatic transformation

of one of the world’s least visited landscapescomes from Sergei Kirpotin, a botanist atTomsk State University, Russia, and JudithMarquand at the University of Oxford.

Kirpotin describes an “ecological landslidethat is probably irreversible and is undoubt-edly connected to climatic warming”. He saysthat the entire western Siberian sub-Arctic

Climate warning

Polar bearvulnerable

� Skadi, one of the polar bearsWWF is tracking on the Polar BearTracker website with the help of theNorwegian Polar Institute(www.panda.org/polarbears), swamat least 74km in one day – andmaybe more.This is believed to bethe first conclusive proof that polarbears cover such a great distance inthe water.

Polar bear makes

Water droplets fly as a polar bear shakes

RALLY FOR REFUGEAround 5,000 people gathered infront of the US Capitol Building inWashington DC in September toprotest against the proposed oildrilling in the Arctic NationalWildlife Refuge.

The protestors were made up ofaboriginal groups from northernCanada and Alaska, and youth fromright across the US.

POLAR EXPLORERDELIVERS VALUABLE SNOW DEPTH DATA The European Space Agency’s(ESA) CryoSat mission to monitorprecise changes in the thickness ofthe polar ice sheets and floatingsea ice was boosted by data fromDutch explorer Marc Cornelissen.Cornelissen collected the data inMarch this year, when he led thePole Track 2005 expedition on a1,000 km ski trek to the geographicNorth Pole.The expedition wassupported by WWF.

Malcolm Davidson, ESA CryoSatValidation Manager, said:“MarcCornelissen’s careful measurementsof snow thickness during his expedi-tion are very valuable indeed.”

APOLOGYWe would like to apologise for twoerrors in Arctic Bulletin 2.05. In thearticle, ‘The battle for the ArcticRefuge’, the image caption wasincorrect.The image thataccompanies the story is of thesouth slope of the Brooks Range,and not the coastal plains of theArctic National Wildlife Refuge.Thearticle, ‘Arctic leaders spreadclimate message’, was mis-credited.The author was Clive Tesar, notTonje Folkestad.We apologise toour readers for these two errors.

WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 News 5

as Siberia meltsregion has begun to melt, and this “has allhappened in the last three or four years”.

What was until recently a featurelessexpanse of frozen peat is turning into awatery landscape of lakes, some more than akilometre across. Kirpotin suspects that someunknown critical threshold has been crossed,triggering the melting.

Western Siberia has warmed faster thanalmost anywhere else on the planet, with an

increase in average temperatures of some 3 °Cin the last 40 years. The warming is believedto be a combination of man-made climatechange, a cyclical change in atmosphericcirculation known as the Arctic oscillation,plus feedbacks caused by melting ice, whichexposes bare ground and ocean. These absorbmore solar heat than white ice and snow.

Fred Pearce,NewScientist.com

The female bear, equipped witha satellite tracking device, enteredthe water on the east of Svalbardon July 20, swam northeast and re-emerged on the island of Edgeoyaa day later.

This is the first time that such along swim has been documented bysatellite telemetry for polar bears.

A sensor on the bear’s collar

sent different signals when it wasin salty sea water compared to onland or on ice.

Skadi had probably swum closerto 100 km since the bear almostcertainly did not swim the 74kmbetween the two points in anexact straight line.

The bear covered the gap inabout 24 hours, giving an average

speed of 3–4 km/h – about as fastas a person walking.

The swim probably means thattwo cubs, with Skadi when thebear was marked in the spring, haddied earlier in the summer.Mortality rates among polar bearcubs are high.

Julian Woolford,Jwoolford@wwf.no

longest recorded swim

her head whilst swimming amongst ice in Spitsbergen.

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Native Alaskans join theprotest against drilling in theArctic National WildlifeRefuge in Washington DC.

Gwich’in First Nation leadersand Canadian conservationgroups strongly support

Canadian Prime Minister PaulMartin’s recent statementsopposing drilling in the ArcticNational Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

In a recent interview with theWhitehorse Star, Prime MinisterMartin said: “I will call key senatorsand congressmen as identified bythe embassy who can make a differ-ence in this very important vote,and I will never miss an opportunityto raise it with the administration.

“I will never give up, I will do mybest to protect the caribou and theaboriginal people.”

“The Refuge is a sacred place forall Gwich’in people,” said NormaKassi of the Vuntut Gwich’in in OldCrow, Yukon.“I was thrilled to hearMr. Martin support this as a humanrights issue, which it definitely is forthe Gwich’in.”

The Refuge contains the calvinggrounds for the porcupine caribouherd, which is an important foodsource for Gwich’in in the Yukonand Alaska.

“By the stroke of a pen the pres-ident of the United States candestroy yet another ancientculture,” said Kassi. “We’re notgoing to stand by and let thishappen.”

At an upcoming vote in the U.S.Congress, Canadian voices may beenough to tip the balance and keepthe oil companies out. The next stepwill be ensuring real and permanentprotection to avoid any futureattempts to drill in the Refuge.

Wendy Douglaswdouglas@wwfcanada.org

Canada opposed to drilling in Arctic Refuge

New vegetation may accelerate arctic warming

Warming in the Arctic is stim-

ulating the growth ofvegetation and could affect the

delicate energy balance, causing anadditional climate warming of severaldegrees over the next few decades.

A new study indicates that as thenumber of dark-coloured shrubs in theotherwise stark arctic tundra rises, theamount of solar energy absorbed couldincrease winter heating by up to 70percent.

The research, conducted by the US

Army Cold Regions Research andColorado State University, presents thefirst evidence that shrub growth couldalter the winter energy balance of theArctic and sub-Arctic tundra in asubstantial way.

Matthew Sturm, lead author of thestudy, said: “If tundra is converted toshrub land, more solar energy will beabsorbed in the winter than before.”

While previous research has shownthat warmer temperatures during thearctic summer enhance shrub growth,

Sturm said: “Our study is importantbecause it suggests that the winterprocesses could also contribute to andamplify the rate of the [growth].”

In addition, the increasing shrubcover would impact more than just theenergy balance in the Arctic. The studyconcludes that the combined effects ofincreasing shrubs on both energy andcarbon could change the Arctic in a waythat affects the rest of the world.

Nigel Allan, nallan@wwf.no

Karsten Heuer, Being Caribou

The porcupinecaribou herdmigratebetween theArctic NationalWildlife Refugein northwestAlaska and theYukon Territory,Canada.

Adelegation of US Senatorshas made another trip to theArctic to see the effects of

climate change for themselves.The delegation, which included

Democrat Senator Hillary Clintonand Republican Senator JohnMcCain, visited Alaska and theYukon Territory in Canada. Thehigh-profile group of politiciansvisited Svalbard, Norway in 2004.

During their tour, they spokewith native elders and flew overforest devastated by the spruce barkbeetle, a species that has thrivedunder a warmer climate.

McCain, a former Presidentialcontender, said: “The question ishow much damage will be done

before we start taking concreteaction. Go up to places like we justcame from. It’s a little scary.”

Clinton said: “I don’t thinkthere’s any doubt left for anybodywho actually looks at the science.There are still some holdouts, butthey’re fighting a losing battle. Thescience is overwhelming.”

Lindsey Graham, a RepublicanSenator, who was also part of thedelegation, said: “If you can go tothe Native people and listen to theirstories and walk away with anydoubt that something’s going on, Ijust think you’re not listening.”

McCain and Democrat SenatorJoe Lieberman have co-sponsored abill that would cap US greenhouse

gas emissions. The US is the biggestcontributor of greenhouse gases,which is believed by the majority ofscientists to be causing climatechange.

The delegation was not joined byany Alaskan federal politicians, allof whom have blocked previousefforts to limit US greenhouse gasemissions.

The bipartisan envoy also visitedKenai Fjords National Park inSeward, Alaska where glaciers havebeen retreating at a rapid rate, thecauses of which are also connectedto climate change.

Nigel Allannallan@wwf.no

Anew WWF-funded projecthas given a voice to onenative community in Alaska

so that they can tell the story ofwhat climate change means tothem.

Under the guidance of villageelders, community members, andthe Tribal Council, high schoolstudents in the Athabascan villageof Huslia have recorded elders andcommunity members talking aboutthe impacts of climate change ontheir community.

The students have used audiorecordings, along with new and oldimages from the area, to produce afour-part radio series and an audio-slide show.

The series has been broadcastacross the state of Alaska on KUACand Alaska Public Radio news-hourprogrammes, and is being offeredto radio stations nation-wide onNational Public Radio’sprogramme Independent NativeNews.

As producers of the four radioprogrammes, the students wereinvolved in every aspect of produc-tion.

The project’s PrincipalInvestigator is Huslia-born residentOrville Huntington, and KathyTurco of Alaska’s Spirit Speaks:Sound and Science is serving as

media consultant.To listen to the radio interviews,

visit www.panda.org/arctic.Tonje Folkestad

tfolkestad@wwf.no

US politicians see climatewarming for themselves

Witnessing climate change

WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 News 7

Students Sheila Esmailka, Kenny Sam, Ryan Olin and LeAnn Bifelt (left to right) and AthenaSam (not present in picture) from Huslia,Alaska, produced a series of radio programmesabout their local elders’ experiences of climate change.

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8 News WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05

Russian trawlers are notrespecting cod quotas in theArctic, threatening the last

major stock of the fish, WWFannounced in a report presented ata conference in Murmansk, Russiain August.

The report says figures based onRussia’s own accounting indicatedthat Russian trawlers were catching70,000–115,000 tonnes more thanthe 480,000 tonne per year quotaset for the entire Barents Sea undera 50–50 shareout between Russiaand Norway.

“The over-fishing is jeopardisingthe future of the cod stock,” saidMaren Esmark, WWF-Norway’smarine conservation officer.“A fifth

of the fish caught is above thequota,” she said.

WWF estimates that Russianoverfishing of cod was worth about$150 million. Esmark said theRussian violations were worst, butthat Norwegian fishermen werealso to blame.

“Russians are far from alone inillegal fishing in the Barents Sea,”she said.

No estimates were available forpossible Norwegian violations in theBarents Sea, but a Norwegian reportin 2004 indicated that illegal fishing,such as the dumping of undersizedfish, of all species, from herring tocod, along the Norwegian coast wasworth about $120 million a year.

Stocks of Atlantic cod offCanada collapsed in the early 1990sand stocks in the North Sea havealso plunged. More than half thetotal Atlantic cod catch of about800,000 tonnes a year now comesfrom the Barents Sea.

“Russian overfishing isdestroying the image of the BarentsSea. It’s reasonably well managedcompared to the North Sea orCanada,” Esmark said.

WWF said that ports in EuropeanUnion nations including Britain andthe Netherlands had landed Russiancod caught in violation of quotas.Esmark said ports and supermarketsshould be stricter in checking theorigin of imported fish.

Oil development in the BarentsSea is set to be a difficultissue for Norway’s new

coalition government.The new government, elected in

mid-September, is a coalition of theNorwegian Labour Party, which isin favour of oil development in theBarents, and two smaller centre andsocialist parties, which are both

critical of plans to allow the oilindustry into the Norwegian Arctic.

During the election campaign,the Labour Party said it wouldconsider protecting key habitats inthe Barents Sea from petroleumdevelopment. The establishment ofoil-free zones is, therefore, a likelycompromise in the new coalitiongovernment. However, it remains to

be seen where and how large theseareas will be and if they will includethe most valuable and vulnerableareas of the Barents Sea ecosystem.

Dag Nagoda, head of WWF’sBarents Sea Ecoregion Programmesaid:“The oil industry’s claims to beable to prevent any negative envi-ronmental impact from their activ-ities are false. Since 1990, there havebeen more than 2,500 acute oil spillson the Norwegian Shelf. Searching,drilling and transporting oil isinherently risky. The consequencesfor nature and the people thatdepend on that nature for theirlivelihood are likely to be disas-trous.”

The Norwegian Government’sown experts say that the environ-mental risk linked with petroleumexploration in the Barents Sea issignificant. The Institute of MarineResearch, the Pollution ControlAuthority, the Directorate forNature Management and the PolarInstitute have all recommendedthat no petroleum explorationshould be allowed in the mostsensitive areas of the Barents Sea.

Fishermen’s associations and amajority of the Norwegian popula-tion are in favour of establishingpetroleum free areas in the BarentsSea.

Dag Nagodadnagoda@wwf.no

Oil-free zones in the Norwegian elections

Illegal fishing threatens cod

The WWF International ArcticProgramme is calling for applicationsfor the Arctic Tourism andConservation Grant.The small grantscheme provides start-up funding forsmall-scale but effective measuresthat establish or improve linksbetween tourism and arctic

conservation.The deadline for the2005 grant is December 15, 2005.More information can be found onWWF’s arctic website:www.panda.org/arctic or bycontacting Miriam Geitz atmgeitz@wwf.no

New opportunity for conservation-oriented tourism projects

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WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 News 9

Mapping Russian PAsWWF has produced

updated digital maps ofall federal and regional

protected areas in arctic Russia.The exercise, led by WWF-

Russia, involved compiling andreviewing all existing digital mapinformation, as well as digitisingmaps of protected areas where nodigital versions existed.

The maps and information areinitially being used in a joint WWFand UNEP report on the status ofprotected areas in the Arctic, slatedfor release later this year.

Once the new data has beenreviewed and quality-checked, itwill be submitted to the WorldConservation Monitoring Centre(UNEP-WCMC) in Cambridge,UK, to update and strengthen theirWorld Database on Protected Areas(WDPA).

Dr Igor Lysenko, data analyst atWCMC, says: “This is a mostwelcome contribution from WWF.We are tasked with holding andmanaging the WDPA, but aredependent upon input from co-

operating agencies and organisa-tions such as WWF for originaldata, revisions, and information onnew protected areas. We are verypleased that we now can upgradeour information on northernRussia.”

Russia is the largest of the arcticcountries. The new maps show thatnearly 15 percent, or just over onemillion square kilometres, areprotected either under federal orregional laws in arctic Russia.

Stefan Norris, the WWF ArcticProgramme’s head of conservation,said: “This is impressive and vitallyimportant in the arctic context, toensure the survival of the manyunique species found in these areas,the functioning of the high arcticecosystems, and the livelihoods ofthe arctic indigenous peoples livingin or near these areas.”

The maps reveal an under-repre-sentation of marine, coastal andfreshwater habitats in the protectedarea system of northern Russia – ashortcoming shared by all arcticcountries.

For the existing protected areasin arctic Russia, the main challengescontinue to be long-term financing,management, monitoring andenforcement, and the continuingthreat from central authorities ofdismantling the hugely importantregional protected areas.

The new data differs in somerespects from past data on Russianprotected areas. This is primarilydue to shortcomings in older data,the past lack of data from certainareas, changes in protection cate-gory or status of some areas, andrecent losses of or creation of newprotected areas. With this new data,the global reference database will bevastly improved with regards toinformation on northern Russianprotected areas.

WWF relied heavily on theexpertise and helpful assistance ofmany institutions and individualsin northern Russia for this project,including the Ministry of NaturalResources.

Stefan Norris snorris@wwf.no

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Coastal view inKoryakskyZapovednik onthe KamchatkaPeninsula:Thecoast of theBering Sea andmountains ofthe GovenPeninsula on aSeptember day.

10 News

Arctic seabirds may be trans-porting industrial and agri-cultural contaminants to

remote arctic locations according toa recent study published in the Julyedition of Science.

The study, conducted at DevonIsland in arctic Canada, sampled 11ponds and showed that persistentorganic pollutants and mercuryconcentrations in high arctic pondsediments are closely related to thepresence of seabird populations inor near the ponds.

The highest concentrations ofthe persistent contaminants HCB(hexachlorobenzene), DDT(dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane),DDT metabolites, and mercurywere observed in the ponds thatwere most enriched (with nitrogenthat comes from the birds’ excre-ment).

The researchers were studying alarge and isolated colony of

northern fulmars. These birds eatmarine organisms such as planktonand fish and are likely contami-nated with these chemicals throughtheir diet. The results are also aconcern for people, as in northernregions it is common for somepeople to eat a marine-based dietand bird eggs.

The lead researcher, Dr JulesBlais, stresses that:“results are basedon observations near seabirdnesting sites, and therefore we can’textrapolate our conclusion – thatthis contaminant pathway dwarfsatmospheric inputs – to other partsof the Arctic.”

For more information contactBrettania Walker, WWFInternational Arctic Programme,bwalker@wwf.no or Dr Jules Blais,University of Ottawa, Canada,jblais@science.uottawa.ca

Brettania Walker,bwalker@wwf.no

His Serene Highness Prince Albert II ofMonaco followed in the footsteps of hisgreat-grandfather, Prince Albert I, when hevisited the high arctic archipelago of Svalbardthis July.

The Prince’s great grand-father, known asthe father of oceanography, explored Svalbardin the early part of the last century. His teamof scientists studied glaciers, mapped previ-ously unknown areas on Svalbard, and carriedout other scientific research.Their work isstill used by arctic scientists today.

HSH Prince Albert II was accompanied bymarine scientists and other experts on hisweek-long expedition aboard the Origo,chartered by Swedish tour company PolarQuest.These included Samantha Smith,director of the WWF International ArcticProgramme. She was advising the Prince andother tour participants about the Arctic’snatural values and the environmental chal-

lenges now facing the region, in particularclimate change.

The trip included discussions with scien-tists at the research station in Ny Ålesund,

hosted by the Norwegian PolarInstitute (NPI).The Prince’sgreat-grandfather funded earlyarctic research, including workby Norwegian scientists inSvalbard. In time this led to thecreation of the NPI itself.WWFalso works closely with scien-tists at NPI.

Toxic contaminant andclimate research was alsoundertaken during the trip.

Samantha Smith said:“WWFwelcomes the Prince’s genuineinterest in the environment andin the Arctic, and hopes that hisvisit will draw attention to the

region’s global importance for conservationas well as the environmental problems there.”HSH Prince Albert II is now planning anexpedition to the North Pole next spring.

Seabird pollution link

HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco travels to Arctic

His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco onthe Monaco Glacier, Svalbard.

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WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 News 11

As renewed interest in nuclear

energy grows, so too does theinterest in uranium mining.

The price of uranium is higher thanit has been in years, and areas previ-ously thought uneconomical toexplore now look appealing toexpand current supply streams.

UR Energy, an Ottawa-basedcompany in Canada, which appliedthis spring to explore for uranium atScreech Lake in Canada’s NorthwestTerritories, withdrew their land usepermit in the face of strong opposi-tion from the Lutsel K’e Dene FirstNation (‘First Nation’ refers to anorganised aboriginal group orcommunity in Canada).

Screech Lake is five kilometersfrom the Thelon River, south of theThelon Sanctuary border. The

Sanctuary is the largest and mostremote wildlife refuge in NorthAmerica and is part of the migra-tory range of the Beverly caribouherd and home to countlessmuskox, moose, grizzly bears andother wildlife.

The First Nation refused UREnergy’s permit to complete theirland use and protected area plan-ning.

Lutsel K’e is one of the closestcommunities to the Thelon Basinand a community with very strongtraditional ties to the Thelon water-shed.

Geological knowledge of thearea depicts the Thelon Basin assimilar to that of the AthabascaBasin in Saskatchewan, whichproduces a large percentage of the

world’s supply of high-gradeuranium.

It is anticipated that companieswill be back to apply for explo-ration permits better prepared thisfall after the strong opposition theyexperienced this summer.

WWF believes that thismounting interest in uraniumexploration in the Thelon raises thefundamental question of whether aFirst Nation’s legal right to declinea development project in theirterritory will be respected.

For more background informa-tion on the Screech Lake EA anduranium exploration in the ThelonBasin, visit www.mveirb.nt.ca.

Tracey WilliamsWWF-Canada

twilliams@wwfcanada.org

Uranium exploration in NWT

Researchers found that seabirds such as the northern fulmarmay be partly responsible for transporting toxics to the Arctic.

Photo:WWF-Canon/Kevin Schafer

12 Pollution WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05

A new Greenland/Faroe Island study,financed by the Danish EnvironmentalProtection Agency, has tested speciesincluding birds, seals, whales and polarbears for PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonate) and other fluorochemicalsused in common household productssuch as stain-retardants, surface-protectors for furniture, carpets,textiles, non-stick cookware, papercoatings and fire-fighting foams.

The study shows that fish, birds, andmarine mammals are polluted withfluorinated chemicals. The results add

to the list of arctic locations wherethese chemicals have now beendetected and show that polar bears arethe most contaminated animals ofthose tested.

The full results of the studyappeared in the July edition of theinternational journal EnvironmentalPollution.

Unlike many other persistent chem-icals, which accumulate in fat, fluori-nated chemicals bind to proteins in theblood and can accumulate and damageorgans such as the liver. There is also

evidence that PFOS has negative effectson the hormone system. Although it isstill unclear how PFOS is reaching theArctic, it was detected in all testedanimals from the Faroe Islands and 13out of 16 samples from Greenland,with polar bears – at the top of the foodchain – showing the highest concen-trations. Other studies have confirmedmarine mammals from arctic Norway,Alaska, and Canada are also contami-nated with fluorinated chemicals.

Even more alarming is that it’s notonly wildlife which is at risk: a recentstudy sponsored by The NorwegianPollution Control Authority reportedthat PFOS was detected in the blood ofpregnant women from northernNorway and Russia. Researchersanalysed blood from 20 pregnantwomen in Bodø, Norway and Taimyr,Russia. The samples from Russia camefrom a group of indigenous peoplesliving at the Taimyr Peninsula inSiberia.

While there are no known localsources of PFOS in Taimyr, the inhab-itants of Bodø are exposed to pollu-tants from products used in daily lifeand from long range transportedpollutants. PFOS was found in theblood of both Norwegian and Russianwomen, in about 70% of samples. ThePFOS levels were higher in theNorwegian blood samples and wereoften higher than levels of older pollu-tants, such as PCBs.

These results are another reminderthat pollution knows no geographicalborders. Substances being transportedover long distances and across borders,due largely to air and ocean currentsthat head north, must therefore beregulated on a global level. Indigenouspeoples are particularly vulnerablebecause their traditional food, oftenthe most nutritious and affordableavailable, is contaminated.

This study is the first report on newcontaminants, such as PFOS, inhumans living in the Arctic. Despitethe small sample size of only 20

Fluorochemicals pollute a

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New studies show that fish, birds, and marine mammals in Greenlandand the Faroe Islands, and pregnant women in Russia and Norway, arepolluted with fluorinated chemicals. Brettania Walker investigates.

Polar bears arethe most contam-inated animals ofthose tested in arecent study.

WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 Pollution 13

arctic people and wildlifewomen, the results prove that newerchemicals are making their way intohuman blood. Additional studies onother human populations in theRussian Arctic, with the purpose toboth verify the initial findings and tofurther expand the research, will beginin autumn 2005.

When animals and people in remotearctic locations are full of chemicalsfrom consumer products it means thatsomething is wrong. Yet governmentsare slow in realising the danger. Canadais the only country currently banningPFOS and Sweden’s proposals for banson PFOS at the European Union andglobal levels still need approval. WWFis calling on European legislators toprotect the environment and publichealth by identifying and phasing-outthe most hazardous chemicals,including PFOS.

This demand is also supported byDr Rossana Bossi, one of the scientistsleading the Greenland/Faroe Islandsstudy. She said: “Strong EU chemicallegislation will add new knowledge onchemicals and their properties, andhelp reduce the negative effects on theenvironment from exposure to chem-icals.”

According to Gunnar Futsæter ofthe Norwegian Pollution ControlAuthority (SFT): “SFT is considering arestriction or ban later this year. Firstpriority will be to restrict the use ofPFOS in fire-extinguisher foam used infire-fighting exercises. Most PFOS inNorway is found in fire-extinguisherfoam used by industry, especiallyoffshore oil and gas industry. Adialogue is underway with theNorwegian Petroleum Safety Authorityto find faster control actions that canreduce releases of PFOS in the offshoreindustry and, at the same time, ensuresafety on offshore rigs.”

Contact Brettania Walker (WWFInternational Arctic Programme,bwalker@wwf.no), Gunnar Futsæter(Norwegian Pollution ControlAuthority, gunnar.futsater@sft.no) orDr. Rossana Bossi (NationalEnvironmental Research Institute,Denmark, rbo@dmu.dk) for moreinformation

Brettania Walker,bwalker@wwf.no

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PFOS contamination hasbeen found in bloodsamples from pregnantwomen in northern Norwayand Russia.

A new study shows that soot may becontributing to changes in theArctic, such as accelerating sea iceand snow melt, and changingatmospheric temperatures. NASA isexploring the impact of blackcarbon, or soot, on the Earth’sclimate using satellite data andcomputer models.

Dorothy Koch of ColumbiaUniversity, New York, and NASA’sGoddard Institute for Space Studies(GISS), New York, and JamesHansen of NASA GISS are co-authors of the study that appearedin a recent issue of the Journal ofGeophysical Research.

“This research offers additionalevidence that black carbon, gener-ated through the process of incom-plete combustion, may have asignificant warming impact on theArctic,” says Koch. “Further, itmeans there may be immediateconsequences for arctic ecosystems,and potentially long-term implica-tions on climate patterns for muchof the globe,” she added.

The Arctic is especially suscep-tible to the impact of human-generated particles and other pollu-tion. In recent years, the Arctic hassignificantly warmed, and sea-icecover and glacial snow have dimin-ished. Likely causes for these trendsinclude changing weather patterns

and the effects of pollution. Blackcarbon has been implicated asplaying a role in melting ice andsnow. When soot falls on ice, itdarkens the surface and acceleratesmelting by increasing absorbedsunlight. Airborne soot also warmsthe air and affects weather patternsand clouds.

Koch and Hansen’s resultssuggest a possible mechanismbehind the satellite-derived obser-vations of arctic climate change.They found that the timing andlocation of arctic warming and seaice losses in the late 20th centuryare consistent with a significantcontribution from man-made tinyparticles of pollution, or aerosols.

Koch and Hansen used GISS’General Circulation Model (GCM)to investigate the origins of arcticsoot by isolating various sourceregions and types. The GCMemploys a lot of different data gath-ered by NASA and other US satel-lites to study many environmentalfactors such as ice cover andtemperature.

The research found that in theatmosphere over the Arctic, about athird of the soot comes from SouthAsia, a third from burning biomassor vegetation around the world,and the remainder from Russia,Europe and North America.

South Asia is estimated to havethe largest industrial soot emissionsin the world, and the meteorologyin that region readily lifts pollutioninto the upper atmosphere where itis transported to the Arctic.Meanwhile, the pollution fromEurope and Russia travels closer tothe surface.

During the early 1980s, theprimary sources of arctic particu-late pollution are believed to havebeen from Russia and Europe.Those sources have decreasedsubstantially in the past twodecades, but the computer simula-tions indicate increasing emissionsfrom South Asia have made up forsome of the reduced Eurasianpollution. Koch and Hansensuggest Southern Asia also makesthe greatest contribution to sootdeposited on Greenland.

NASA-sponsored efforts usingsatellite data and models to assesspolar feedbacks constitute animportant contribution to the USClimate Change Science Program.By exploring processes in the earth’satmosphere, NASA scientists areseeking answers to how pollutantslike soot are changing the climate ofthe world around us.

Rob Gutro NASA – Goddard Space Flight Centre

Soot impact on the ArcticSoot travelling from Asia to the Arctic is causing increased melting of seaice and snow. Rob Gutro of NASA explains.

About a third ofthe soot in theArctic comesfrom burningbiomass orvegetationaround theworld, such asthis forest firein Kalimantan,Indonesia.

Photo:WWF-Canon/Alain COMPOST

WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 Wildlife 15

There remains little doubt thatclimate change will drive significantchanges in the Arctic. A warmingArctic will experience a dauntingarray of stresses, impacting bothecosystems and people.Authoritativevoices are calling attention topredicted impacts, many of whichhave the potential to be dramatic andvisible – rising sea levels and thawingground, for instance.

But a warming Arctic will alsoexperience countless smaller alter-ations, changing the arctic tapestrythread by thread. One example isthe diversity and distribution ofanimal species.

A case in point could be theKittlitz’s murrelet (Brachyramphusbrevirostris), perhaps the mostthreatened species of seabirdbreeding in the Arctic. This rare,enigmatic seabird relies on foragefish and zooplankton harvestedfrom coastal waters, often in prox-imity to tidewater glaciers or otherfreshwater outflows. We know thatKittlitz’s murrelets raise a singlechick in an unprotected nest,usually high in coastal mountaintalus. But we remain ignorant of thebiology of this species, since onlysome 20 nests have ever beenfound, and only one nesting pairhas ever been studied in any detail.

The global population ofKittlitz’s murrelet is geographicallycentered on the Bering Sea,stretching from the Gulf of Alaskanorth to the Chukchi Sea, and westto Russia’s Sea of Okhotsk. Globalpopulation estimates range widely,from 9,000 to 24,000 individuals.

One fact is clear – the globalpopulation of Kittlitz’s murrelets ismuch reduced from historicallevels. Long-term populationmonitoring work in four of the coreKittlitz’s murrelet areas haverevealed steep declines, with up to80 percent of the local populations

vanishing over the past ten to 20years.

Two factors make a compellinglink between climate change anddeclining Kittlitz’s murrelet popu-lations. First, the species is unusu-ally dependent on foraging inglacier-influenced marine habitat.Second, the population decline isconsistent across a broadgeographic range. A handful ofthreats could be driving declines inKittlitz’s murrelet populations – oilspills, gillnet bycatch, or vesseldisturbance – but climate change isthe only threat that is consistentacross the whole region that isexperiencing population declines.

One of the missing pieces of thepuzzle is the Russian portion of thepopulation. Over thepast five years,American wildlifemanagers and scien-tists have undertakena series of studiesfocused on Kittlitz’smurrelet. But untilthis summer, therewas no parallel effortin Russian waters.

As a starting pointfor learning moreabout the Russianpopulation, Dr Alexander Andreev,director of ornithology at theInstitute for Biological Problems ofthe North (IBPN) in Magadan,Russia, proposed an expedition tothe northeastern part of the Sea ofOkhotsk. Two Kittlitz’s murreletnests are known from this region,and murrelets are regularly spottedin the area. But the region’s coast-line has never been fully exploredby ornithologists.

The proposed expeditionbecame reality with support fromUS Fish and Wildlife Service(USFWS), IBPN, and WWF.Alexander Andreev, Kira Regel,

Olga Mochalova and Thomas VanPelt made up the scientific crew. Wedeparted Magadan in June 2005.Three weeks and 2,300 kilometerslater, we returned with a wealth ofnew information on coastal birddistribution and abundance in thisexceptionally productive region.

We documented a substantiallocal population of Kittlitz’smurrelets, filling in part of thepicture of Kittlitz’s murrelet in theRussian Far East. To measure popu-lation changes, the set of transectsthat we established can be repeatedin future years.

In the coming months, we willuse the data to estimate the localKittltiz’s murrelet population size,and we’ll correlate the birds’ distri-

bution with environmental vari-ables to shed additional light on thepossible link between the speciesand climate change.

The expedition was a scientificsuccess, and also illustrates thestrong collaborative links betweenscientists in Alaska and the RussianFar East. Understanding even a frac-tion of the impacts of a warmingArctic will require new partnershipssuch as this one, reaching acrossnational boundaries.

Thomas van PeltInternational ConservationUS Fish & Wildlife Service

thomas_van_pelt@fws.gov

The mystery of seabird declineKittlitz’s murrelet, a rare seabird breeding in Alaska and far eastern Russia, has experienced sharp population declines and is listed as “criticallyendangered” in the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Red List ofThreatened Species. Thomas van Pelt investigates a link to climate change in the Russian Arctic.

Kittlitz’smurrelet.

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16 Oceanography WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05

Large regions of the North AtlanticOcean have been growing freshersince the late 1960s as meltingglaciers and increased precipita-tion, both associated with green-house warming, have enhancedcontinental run-off into the arcticand sub-arctic seas.

Over the same time period,salinity records show that largepulses of extra sea ice and freshwater from the Arctic have flowedinto the North Atlantic. But, untilnow, the actual amounts and ratesof fresh water accumulation havenot been explicitly known.

Ruth Curry of the Woods HoleOceanographic Institution(WHOI) and Cecilie Mauritzen ofthe Norwegian MeteorologicalInstitute quantified for the firsttime how much additional freshwater caused the observed salinitychanges in the northern NorthAtlantic Ocean, how fast it enteredthe Atlantic circulation, and wherethat fresh water was stored.

They report that patterns offresh water accumulation over thepast four decades suggest that afreshening threshold important tothe ocean circulation and its pole-ward transport of heat could bereached in a century, althoughfuture impacts of global warming

and glacial melting make predic-tion imprecise at this time.

They analysed data collected inthe North Atlantic Ocean betweenLabrador, Greenland and northernEurope over the last 55 years to

reconstruct the history of oceanproperties such as temperature,salinity and density.

In an average year, about 5,000cubic kilometres (km³) of fresh waterflows from the Arctic into the NorthAtlantic through passages locatedeast and west of Greenland. Theresearchers estimate that in additionto this amount, an extra 19,000 cubickm flowed into and diluted thenorthern seas over the 30-year timeperiod between 1965 and 1995.

About 80 percent ended up inthe sub-polar basins, which areabout twice the geographic size ofthe Nordic seas. The amount offresh water involved would beequivalent to a layer about threemeters (roughly nine feet) thickspread evenly over the total area ofthe sub-polar basins, and a layerabout 1.8 meters (about five feet)thick over the Nordic seas.

Freshwater from thawing ice in the Arctic is gradually changing thetemperature of the North Atlantic Ocean. Shelley Dawicki of Woods HoleOceanographic Institution explains how this could eventually affect the flowof warm water from the Tropics to the Arctic.

Topographic map of the Nordic Seas and sub-polar basins, with schematiccirculation of surface currents (solid curves) and deep currents (dashedcurves) that form a portion of the Atlantic Meridional OverturningCirculation (MOC).The color of the curves depicts their approximatetemperatures.The map inset shows the boundaries of the Nordic Seas andsub-polar basins used in the analysis of water volume.

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WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 Oceanography • Fisheries 17

Fishing activities did not signifi-cantly impact the Barents Seaecosystem until the beginning ofthe 20th Century. But with thedevelopment of deep sea trawling,over-fishing has become moreprevalent. A new WWF report,Fisheries in the Russian Barents Seaand the White Sea: Ecological chal-lenges, shows that intensive fisheriesactivities over the last five decadeshave significantly impacted manyfish stocks. Between the 1950s andearly 1980s, the contribution of theBarents Sea and surroundingwaters to the world catch of fish andseafood averaged five percent (2.9million tons). However, by 1990 thetotal catch in the region had

dropped to just 0.8 million tons –less than one percent of the globalcatch.

The Institute of Marine Researchin Bergen, Norway estimates that ifthe fishing pressure on cod from1990 to 2000 had been kept at thelevel recommended by theInternational Council for theExploration of the Seas (ICES), thespawning biomass in 2000 wouldhave been closer to 900,000 tons,instead of the 220,000 tons that wasactually observed.

In addition, the over-fishing ofcod has led to drops in most othercommercial species includingredfish, halibuts, herring andcapelin.

The new WWF report addressesfour main challenges for the futureof the fisheries in the Barents Searegion:

Overcapacity: In spite of all effortsto reduce the size of the Norwegianfishing fleet, it increased by 72percent between 1992 and 2002. InRussia the average number ofvessels fishing for cod nearlydoubled in the period between1994 and 2002.

Fish quotas not in accordancewith scientific advice: For manyyears, the Russian-NorwegianFisheries Commission has set thecod catch quota, and other quotas,in excess of the total allowable catch

Ecological challenges for the Barents Sea fisheries

The Nordic seas (locatedbetween Iceland, Greenland andNorway) and the Labrador andIrminger Basins (east and west ofsouthern Greenland) are placeswhere cold dense waters areformed, a critical component of themeridional overturning circulation(MOC) and part of a great “oceanconveyor belt” that carries warmsurface waters from the tropicsnorthward.

At high latitudes, the heat-bearing surface waters cool (theheat is released to the overlyingatmosphere) and these denserwaters sink and flow southward inthe deep ocean – a process whichhelps keep the conveyor moving.The transport of heat northwardcontributes to the moderate winter-time climate at high latitudes,notably in regions near the UK andScandinavia.

Excessive amounts of freshwatercould alter the ocean density thatdrives a portion of this circulationsystem, diminish the amount ofheat that is transported northward,and significantly cool areas of theNorthern Hemisphere.

Curry and Mauritzen report thatthe changes in salinity observed todate do not appear to have changed,as yet, the ocean circulation andheat transport, but expectcontinued freshening to affect theocean conveyor in the next twocenturies.

“Precipitation and river runoffat high latitudes have beenincreasing,” Curry said. “In the lastdecade, fresh water has been accu-mulating in the Nordic seas layer(the upper 1000 meters) that is crit-ical to the ocean conveyor, so it issomething to watch. The Greenlandice sheet represents a wild card,” she

added. “There is an enormousamount of freshwater tied up there,which, as it melts, will affect theheadwaters of the ocean conveyor.”

“It certainly makes sense tocontinue monitoring ocean, ice,and atmospheric changes closely,”Curry said. “Given the projected21st century rise in greenhouse gasconcentrations and increased freshwater input to the high latitudeocean, we cannot rule out a signifi-cant slowing of the Atlanticconveyor in the next 100 years. Iemphasise that we are talking aboutcentury time scales to witnessmeasurable changes in the oceantransports of mass and heat acrossthe Greenland-Scotland Ridge – weare not suggesting that the GulfStream will shut down.”

Shelley DawickiWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution

sdawicki@whoi.edu

The Barents Sea cod stock is the largest remaining cod stock in the world.Vassily Spiridonov reports on Russian and Norwegian attempts to understandand control the affects of illegal cod fishing, and the urgent need for sustain-able management.

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North Atlantic

18 Fisheries • Planning WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05

A land use plan for theSahtu Region of theNorthwest Territories,Canada is providinghope that importantcultural and ecologicalzones will be protectedbefore major industrialdevelopment begin.Tracey Williams of WWF-Canada reports.

The Arctic is a region of greatinterest to companies eager to capi-talise on resources that have previ-ously been too expensive to access.As ice thaws, technologies improveand prices rise, the landscape nowbeckons to those eager to access itsriches. Expanses of northernCanada have been staked out, asgeologists look for signs ofdiamonds, oil or uranium underthe surface.

Before the roads open up andthe drills start to spin, northernpeople and conservationists want toensure that important areas arerecognised and protected. TheNorthwest Territories (NWT)Protected Areas Strategy is acommunity-driven, multi-stake-holder process to establish anetwork of protected areas in theNWT.

In the Sahtu Region (hereaftercalled the Sahtu) of the NWT, therecent developments at the SahtuLand Use Planning Board areencouraging for conservationefforts of the community-drivenProtected Areas Strategy process.The Board has a federal mandate tocomplete a land use plan throughthe Mackenzie Valley Land andWater Act. The Act was created toprovide for an integrated system ofland and water management in theMackenzie Valley.

The completion of a land useplan will give Sahtu residents a toolto organise interests of economicdevelopment and conservation.

The Sahtu communities of Tulita,Fort Good Hope, and Deline have

(TAC) proposed by theInternational Council for theExploration of the Sea (ICES).WWF believes that increased trans-parency and a closer cooperationwith environmental non-govern-mental organisations and otherstakeholders would contribute to amore sustainable quota.

Illegal catch of fish: TheNorwegian Directorate of Fisheriesestimates the illegal, unreportedand unregulated (IUU) catch ofcod in the Barents Sea by Russianvessels at 80–100 thousand metrictons between 2002 and 2003.

Increased shipping and industrialdevelopment: Shipping activitiesin the Barents Sea are growing.WWF believes that ParticularlySensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs) shouldbe established in the most vulner-able parts of the region. WWF alsowants stricter Marine ProtectedAreas (MPAs) to protect biodiver-sity and maintain ecosystem func-tions.

A second WWF report publishedthis autumn, Analysis of illegal fisheryfor cod in the Barents Sea, analysesRussian fisheries statistics andconfirms what Norwegian authori-ties have claimed for a long time:every year cod to a value of around120 million Euros are fished illegallyfrom the Barents Sea by Russiantrawlers. The numbers in the WWFreport are partly based on an inves-tigation carried out by PINRO, (NMKnipovich Institute of MarineFisheries and Oceanography) in2004. This is the first time that therehas been a Russian estimate aboutthe size of illegal fishing.

A report from the NorwegianMinistry of Fisheries from 2004showed that il legal fishing inNorwegian waters by Norwegianvessels could amount to an addi-tional 100 million Euros every year.Also, recreational fishing inNorwegian waters poses an addi-tional pressure on the cod stock.

Russia and Norway have tried toaddress the need to prevent illegalfishing in the Barents Sea on severaloccasions. The Russian NorwegianFisheries Commission believes strictfisheries controls should be put inplace in the Barents. TheCommission has also discussed anumber of other measures, includingcontrol of Russian vessel landings inNorwegian ports and the strength-ening of control over transshipments(the loading of fish from a trawler toa transport ship at sea before off-loading at other European ports).Mandatory reporting of landings offish in other European countries andcontrol of the ships in ports wouldhelp reduce illegal fishing.

Despite years of illegal fishing,the management regime set up byRussia and Norway has so far beenable to avoid a collapse in the codstock. ICES has assumed someillegal fishing in their annual advice,and this precautionary approachfrom ICES has proved helpful.

The reports are available inRussian and English. WWF hopesthey will help improve the manage-ment of fisheries resources in theBarents Sea, and help secure asustainable cod stock for the future.

Vassily Spiridonov,Marine Programme Adviser,

WWF Russia

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� Download the report: Analysis of illegal fishery for cod in the Barents Sea (Englishversion) at http://www.wwf.no/pdf/20050818a.pdf� Download the report Fisheries in the Russian Barents Sea and the White Sea:Ecological challenges at http://www.wwf.no/pdf/20050818b.pdf� The Report from the Norwegian “Dumping Commission” is available athttp://www.wwf.no/core/200405/03.asp

A plan for Russian fishingtrawlers inArkhangelsk,northwestRussia.

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WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 Planning 19

been working on protected area proj-ects (see Sahouye-Edacho protectedarea profile article in Arctic Bulletin02.05) and desire to sequence conser-vation of their culturally significantlands in advance of heavy industrialallocation.

The land use plan will delineatewhich lands in the Sahtu SettlementRegion are to be conserved andwhich lands are open to industrialdevelopment, as well as prescribingthresholds for development on allSahtu lands. Such a plan is neededduring a key time with acceleratingindustrial development in theSahtu and the release of theMackenzie Gas Project’s environ-mental impact statement.

With the potential advent of theMackenzie Gas Project, Sahtu resi-dents face the decision of whetherto allow the largest Canadianindustrial infrastructure projectever considered to intersect theirown lands.

The three districts of the Sahtuhave title to 41,437 square kilome-ters of settlement lands, whichincludes ownership of subsurfacerights on roughly 22 percent or1,800 square kilometers. Thesesettlement lands are privately heldlands, not reserve land managedunder the Canadian Indian Act.The remaining 78 percent of land inthe Sahtu remain as federal crownlands under the administration ofthe Northern Oil and GasSecretariat.

Under the Land Claim, the Sahtuland corporations are required to belocally consulted by any companyinterested in industrial develop-ment in their settlement area,whether that development is to takeplace on settlement land or federalcrown land. As the land corpora-tions field the permits and overseeland use in the districts, a completeddraft Sahtu Land Use Plan thatcould help to guide their work hasonly been available in a preliminarydraft form. A fully consulted DraftSahtu Land Use Plan can only resultfrom community member discus-sions involving all key communityland organisations.

At the federal level, when theNorthern Oil and Gas Secretariatidentifies a new claim block for oiland gas exploration, the govern-ment has no direct process to takeinto account cultural and spiritualsite locations important to acommunity unless these arereported to them by the company.Therefore, many culturally impor-tant sites are not considered, eventhough many of these special areasin the Sahtu were identified by aregional working group in 1999 inthe “Places we take Care of Report”,and were included in thePreliminary Draft Sahtu Land UsePlan.

Most recently, significant sites tothe Mackenzie Valley Dene in theSahtu have been included in the2005 published coffee table “SahtuAtlas” (See the book review on page23). The Atlas covers many vitalstatistics of the region as well asrecounts the important storiesrelated to significant cultural areas’in the Sahtu.

There is a growing interest in the

Sahtu to protect culturally signifi-cant lands as well as to identify thebest options for sustainableeconomic development. But thereis creeping confusion, if notgrowing irritation with a federalgovernment that concurrentlysupports ad hoc industrial develop-ment through unplanned oil andgas permitting and mineral explo-ration.

Though the verdict is still out,the recent positive developments atthe Sahtu Land Use Planning Boardcould be a means to focus all landuse planning with the possibility ofan approved Draft Sahtu Land UsePlan in 2006. A completed draftplan has the potential to play aninstrumental role in creating abalanced vision which ensures thatthe culturally and ecologicallysignificant areas are conserved forthe communities of the Sahtu andfor Canada, in advance of industrialdevelopment.

Tracey WilliamsWWF-Canada

twilliams@wwfcanada.org

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The Sahtu Land Use Plan is proving to be an effective tool for the identification and poten-tial protection of ecologically and culturally sensitive areas in the Sahtu Region, NorthwestTerritories, Canada.

20 Interview WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05

Nigel Allan: Why is permafrostthawing?

Vladimir Romanovsky: There aretwo major reasons. The first one isdirectly related to climate change.Permafrost is the product of a coldclimate. It requires land to be cold.So any changes in the climate willeventually bring about changes inpermafrost. There is an extensive‘belt’ of permafrost in lower lati-tudes, which, with only a smalltemperature rise, will disappear. Ofcourse, in higher arctic locations,the permafrost is more stable.Although we see some changes intemperature, we don’t see anyserious thaw yet.

The second cause of thawing isthe result of natural and man-madedisturbances to the land’s surface.Normally, there is a thick organiclayer on the surface of thepermafrost, which makes it morestable and less likely to melt. Theremoval, or partial removal of thislayer, affects thepermafrost directly.This can be caused bya forest fire, forexample, or by a flood.But it can also becaused by agriculturalactivities or construc-tion work on build-ings, roads orpipelines. Most permafrost thaw iscurrently caused by this type ofdisturbance.

Changes caused by climatechange are more gradual. Butpermafrost temperatures have risenover the last 20 to 30 years. We arenow in a position where even smallincreases in temperature couldtrigger a widespread thaw, althoughwe haven’t crossed that threshold yet

NA: What signs are you seeing?

VR: The signs vary, and some ofthem are more dramatic thanothers.

We see ‘thermokarst’, which iswhen the ice has melted and the

ground has dropped away. You canalso see where roads and buildingsbuilt on permafrost have collapsedas the ice has melted. This can bevery dramatic.

On a smaller scale, you can seethe development of new ponds, or

the disappear-ance of ponds,where thawingp e r m a f r o s tallows surfacewater to runaway throughs u b - s u r f a c ec h a n n e l s .There are also

effects on ecosystems. We also see“drunken forests” where permafrosthas thawed, leaving forested landwaterlogged.

A lot of these changes now takeplace on a relatively small scale, butif the climate continues to warm,we are likely to see much moredramatic impacts across a far widerarea.

NA: What are the implications for theArctic?

VR: There will be changes in theecosystem. Some species will be‘winners’ and some ‘losers’.However, there are likely to bemajor impacts on infrastructure;

thawing permafrost will be veryexpensive for businesses.

Of course, the changes to theecosystem in the Arctic will haveimplications for the rest of the world.For example, thawing permafrost willeffect the amount of freshwater thatflows into the Arctic Ocean and couldpotentially contribute to disruptingthe thermohaline circulation. Thethermohaline circulation operateslike a giant conveyor belt that trans-ports warm water to the north andcold water to the south. It relies onheat (thermo) and salinity (haline) torun, and a large influx of freshwaterrelated to the thawing of permafrostwill effect the balance of both andcould thereby slow this system down.This circulation of warm water to thenorth is partly what keeps Europewarmer than other areas of similarlatitude (see p. 16).

Also, the amount of carbontrapped in permafrost in the formof frozen organic material is enor-mous and could easily doubleatmospheric carbon dioxide. Ingeneral, the effect of thawingpermafrost on the carbon cycle is avery complex issue and so far not aswell understood as other impacts.

NA: What action is being taken toaddress this issue? What action doyou think needs to be taken?

VR: Further studies need to takeplace to assess the scale of theproblem. The Arctic ClimateImpact Assessment (ACIA) hasgone a long way to address thisproblem. There is a lot of attentionright now in the media, but if youlook at funding for further research,it’s still pretty low. It is difficult toconvince people that the Arctic isimportant. We need to show peoplethat the importance of the Arctic isnot proportional to its area.

� For an in-depth essay by DrRomanovsky on thawing permafrost andits implications for climate change, visit:www.arctic.noaa.gov/essay_romanovsky.html

Permafrost not so permanentWWF’s Nigel Allan spoke with Dr Vladimir Romanovsky, a permafrost expert fromthe University of Alaska and president of the US Permafrost Association, aboutchanges in the Arctic.

❝… we are likely tosee much moredramatic impactsacross a far widerarea.

Dr Vladimir Romanovsky.

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Industrial projects inAsia threaten impor-tant staging areas forshorebirds migrating toand from the Arctic. NialMoores of Birds Koreareports on the workbeing done to preservethese importantwetlands.

The Saemangeum estuarine system,a 99,000 acre (40,000 hectare) areaof shallows and tidal-flats on thewest coast of South Korea, is nowwidely recognised as one of themost important shorebird sites inthe Yellow Sea, itself a region ofgreat importance to global biodi-versity.

The Saemangeum system’s twoadjacent estuaries support 27 or

more species of waterbird in inter-nationally important concentra-tions, including at least 30 percentof the total population of great knoton northward migration, and onsouthward migration the highestconcentrations in the Yellow Sea of

bar-tailed godwit, dunlin, greyplover and the endangered spoon-billed sandpiper.

The whole estuarine system hasbeen slated for “reclamation” by theSouth Korean government – forconversion to rice-fields, agricul-tural reservoirs and now industrialsites (see Arrctic Bulletin No. 3. 01,p.12–13). Although the project wasinitiated in 1991, the 33-kilometrelong sea wall still remains partunfinished, with further new workblocked by a court ruling.Approximately three kilometres ofthe outer sea wall remains open tothe sea, and although tidal regimeshave been altered, and some speciesof shorebird appear to havedeclined, the area remains vital tomigrating birds.

The project is unpopular domes-tically, being opposed by many localfisherfolk, in addition to themajority of those not living in thearea. Although still consideredlargely an economic issue (beingeither now too expensive tocontinue or too expensive tocancel) there is also a gradual recog-

WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 text 21

Threatened sites and shorebirds ofthe East Asian-Australasian flyway

A diagrammatic representation of the “finished” reclamation, displayed atthe Saemangeum centre. Note both how much construction remains to bedone before completion, and that the diagram still claims the area will beused for rice agriculture (it will not). Note also how this “environmentallyfriendly” reclamation will involve the straightening of both rivers; thedraining and cultivation of all the tidal-flats; and the conversion of allremaining estuarine areas into freshwater reservoirs.Too small to makeout, a bird reserve is proposed for the area where the two rivers meet.

Connected to the Arctic

A non-breeding plumaged spoon-billed sandpiper in Thailand.

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22 Connected to the Arctic • Bookreview WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05

True North: Peary,Cook and the Race for the PoleBruce HendersonNorton2005331 pagesISBN 0-393-05791-7

� Perhaps it’s wrong to review abook about two famous polarexplorers in the Arctic Bulletin: wedo after all focus on environmentalissues in the Arctic in the early 21st

Century. However, our knowledgeabout, and perhaps passion for, theArctic is at least partly due to theexploits of men like Peary andCook at the turn of the centurybefore last. And so on this occasion,the Arctic Bulletin reviews TrueNorth: Peary, Cook and the Race forthe Pole by Bruce Henderson.

For those who aren’t familiarwith the facts, Robert Peary ishonoured as the first man to reach

the North Pole, but fewer know thathis feat has been questioned sincethe day it was announced in 1907.Frederick Cook, in fact, waspossibly the first to reach the Polenearly a year before Peary.Henderson weaves a spell-bindingtale about these two driven men:

the many sacrifices they made andtheir several trips to the Arctic.Indeed Cook also explored theAntarctic and claimed to be the firstman to have reached the summit ofMount McKinley in Alaska.

This reviewer has no deep knowl-edge of the rival claims. However,one feels on reading this book, thatCook, at the very least, was done agrave injustice. His case appears asstrong, if not stronger than Peary’s.And one can’t help but be outragedby Peary’s refusal to transportCook’s logbooks and scientificinstruments back to the US afterCook had been forced to leave thembehind on an earlier expedition;especially as these logbooks mightwell have proved Cook’s claim tohave reached the Pole before Peary.It seems clear Peary knew this.

But readers should decide forthemselves which claim is stronger.Cook should be remembered for

nition that the nation’s tidal-flatsare a natural resource of very highvalue to both wildlife and people.

Following popular protests(including a gruelling ritualised“samboilbae” walk from theSaemangeum area 320 kilometresup to the nation’s capital in 2003),the Government acknowledgedthat the project has no clear end-use. This in turn prompted thecourts to rule in February 2005 thatsea-wall construction be halted,and that the whole project bereviewed.

Although construction will likelystart again sometime in the nearfuture, the repeated suspensionsoffer welcome opportunities toproject opponents. Birds Korea has,for example, initiated discussionswith the Australasian WaderStudies Group and other keyresearchers to undertake a jointshorebird monitoring programmein the Saemangeum area in spring2006, to be repeated in subsequentyears. Such monitoring will domuch to convince the internationalconservation community of thearea’s immense value to migratorywildlife; increase internationalpressure on the South KoreanGovernment to cancel the project;and provide an East Asian exampleof the impacts of reclamation thatcan be cited region-wide.

This last element seems especiallyimportant. Throughout East Asia,loss and degradation of wetlandhabitats continues on apace. Whilethe majority of shorebird popula-tions globally are considered to be indecline, precise data on many popu-lation trends in this region arelacking. In addition, there are nobenchmark studies in the region tosupport the logical assumption thatthe loss of optimal sites will haveimpacts on shorebirds at the popu-lation level, including on charis-matic flagship species like the fast-declining spoon-billed sandpiper

The spoon-billed sandpiper isendemic as a breeding species to thewestern Bering Sea, migratingsouth through key staging sites inespecially Sakhalin and SouthKorea to winter in South andSoutheast Asia. The total popula-tion was estimated at between 2,000and 2,800 pairs in 1977, but at lessthan 1,000 pairs by 2002.

Since the 1970s, there have beenfew major changes in breedingareas. However, there has been verysignificant degradation of knownstaging areas. Sakhalin is nowtargeted by oil and gas companies,including Royal Dutch Shell, whoseSakhalin II project includes theconstruction of a gas processingplant in Aniva Bay – where up to200 spoon-billed sandpiper have

been recorded.In South Korea, the two largest

flocks were 210 at the Nakdongestuary in 1987, and 185 atSaemangeum in 1998. At theNakdong, following estuary barrageconstruction in the late 1980s,recent maxima have reached onlyeight individuals, while shifts intidal regimes and sediment deposi-tion caused by sea-wall construc-tion at Saemangeum have seenrecent peaks there of less than 30.

Even key wintering sites arethreatened. In Thailand’s InnerGulf, where up to 16 spoon-billedsandpipers were found wintering in2003/2004, Siam Gulf Petroleumstarted construction of a refineryonly one kilometre from the mainsite. In addition (though shelved fornow), the Thai government hadproposed a massive trans-gulf roadbridge, which would have cutthrough inter-tidal habitats used bytens of thousands of northern-nesting shorebirds.

Saemangeum, Sakhalin,Thailand’s Inner Gulf… a chain ofinternationally important andthreatened sites in urgent need ofconservation.

Nial MooresDirector, Birds KoreaBirdskorea@aol.com

http://www.birdskorea.orghttp://www.birdskorea.org.kr

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WWF ARCTIC BULLETIN • No. 3.05 Calendar • Bookreview 23

Forthcoming arctic meetings & events

Conferences and workshopsInternational Glaciological Society Nordic Branch Meeting

WHERE: Copenhagen, Denmark • WHEN: 3–5 November • CONTACT: http://server.oersted.dtu.dk/igsnb/

13th Annual Arctic Conference – Archaeology and Human Ecology Data SharingWHERE: Davis, California • WHEN: 4–5 November • CONTACT: Chris Darwent, email: cmdarwent@ucdavis.edu

Joint XVI International Conference on Marine Geology and VIII International Workshop on the Loira ProjectWHERE: Moscow, Russia • WHEN: 4–18 November • CONTACT: email: Gordeev@Geo.Sio.Rssi.Ru or School@Ocean.Ru

Workshop: Arctic Sea Ice Thickness: Past and PresentWHERE: Copenhagen, Denmark • WHEN: 8–9 November • CONTACT: Olivia Low, email: o.low@damtp.cam.ac.uk

Second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning ICARP IIWHERE: Copenhagen, Denmark • WHEN: 10–12 November • CONTACT: www.icarp.dk

UN Climate Change Conference (COP11 and COP/MOP 1)WHERE: Montreal, Canada • WHEN: 28 November – 9 December CONTACT: unfccc.int/meetings/cop_11/items/3394.php

Third International Symposium on Deep-Sea CoralsWHERE: Miami, Florida • WHEN: 28 November – 2 December • CONTACT: conference.ifas.ufl.edu/coral/

International Symposium on Sea IceWHERE: Dunedin, New Zealand • WHEN: 5–9 December • CONTACT: www.igsoc.org/symposia/

Snow, Ice and Water Surfaces in Polar Atmospheric ChemistryWHERE: San Francisco, California • WHEN: 5–9 December •CONTACT: www.agu.org/meetings/fm05/

6th International Conference on Global Change: Connection to the ArcticWHERE: Miraikan, Koto-ku,Tokyo, Japan • WHEN: 12–13 December CONTACT: www.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ste-www1/div1/GCCA6/

For more on these events and other meetings, please visit:http://www.arcus.org/Calendar/upcomingEvents.shtml • http://www.iasc.no/SAM/samtext.htm

his real love of the Arctic and itspeople: he learned the language ofthe Greenland Inuit, and respectedtheir cultures. He realized nothingcould have been achieved withouttheir knowledge of this wild placeand their help. And he dedicatedthe story of his extraordinaryjourney to the top of the world tothe people that lived there. This initself is a legacy worth remem-bering. Henderson has helpedgreatly in achieving this.

Julian Woolford,jwoolford@wwf.no

The Sahtu Atlas: Maps and Stories from the Sahtu Settlement Area in Canada’s Northwest TerritoriesJames Auld & Robert Kershaw (Eds.)Government of the NorthwestTerritories/Sahtu GIS Project, Canada.200568 pages ISBN 0-9737630-0-0

� This is an outstanding new bookabout the people, resources andchanges in the Sahtu region in thelower reaches of the MackenzieValley in Canada’s NorthwestTerritories (NWT). Prompted byaccelerating changes in this largely

pristine and intact natural region(there are no paved roads here)since 1996, the Sahtu GIS project –led especially by the Government ofthe NWT – has compilednumerous databases on ecological,socio-cultural and economicresource distribution, trends andpotential.

The Sahtu Atlas covers theregion in four sections, all illus-trated very clearly by high qualitymaps and photos: The Sahtu peopleand their history; the natural world

(geology, climate, ecosystemprocesses and water); wildlife; andresources and development.

In many ways, this large-formatbook is a fine reflection of the newage facing the wildlife, people andplaces of the Sahtu region.

For those who have worked inmore remote natural regions for awhile, the whole approach here andsuch a book’s utility will beobvious. I hope and expect that thisnew-age approach will be followedelsewhere, ahead of the conven-tional wave of industrial develop-ments and change, so that thosewho have to make the big harddecisions about the future will besufficiently well-informed of thefull range of values at stake, andthat their decisions will indeed bein the best long-term interest for allpeople in the region, and thenatural resources on which we allultimately depend.

Beyond the obvious technicalimportance for today’s decision-makers this book would make awonderful high school or universitygeography class resource in anycountry.

Peter Ewinspewins@wwfcanada.org

B-BLAD Retur WWF-NorgePO Box 6784 St Olavs plass, N-0130 Oslo, Norway

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� mail within Russia:P.O. Box 55 125319 Moscow, RussiaPh: +7 095 7270939Fax: +7 095 7270938www.wwf.ru

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Protected areas in northern Russia

WWF is the world’s largest andmost experienced independentconservation organisation,with almost five millionsupporters and a globalnetwork active in 90 countries.WWF’s mission is to stop thedegradation of the planet’snatural environment and tobuild a future in which humanslive in harmonywith nature.WWF continuesto be known asWorld WildlifeFund in Canadaand the UnitedStates of America.

Federal Zapovednik(IUCN category Ia)Federal Zakaznik(IUCN categories II–V

Regional protected areas

Ramsar sites (wetlands)

WWF has produced the mostcomprehensive digital maps ofarctic Russian protected areasavailable.The maps reveal anunder-representation of marine,coastal and freshwater habitats inthe protected area system ofnorthern Russia.