Pack ice shortage lands ivory gulls on “endangered” list

Two more Arctic species — the ivory gull and Atlantic walrus — are a step closer to extinction, according to a national group that evaluates species at risk.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife recently assessed the ivory gull as “endangered” and the walrus as a species of “special concern.”

In both cases, a combination of climate change and man-made threats — mainly from hunters in Greenland — means these two species may someday disappear.

COSEWIC says “there are now several confirmed threats to ivory gulls in Canada and globally.”

Ivory gulls were once common sights in Nunavut’s High Arctic, migrating from Greenland to Canada in the summer to nest — but hunters noticed that ivory gulls were showing up in fewer numbers.

In Nunavut, the bird inhabits the southeastern tip of Ellesmere Island, the eastern coast of Devon Island, the Brodeur Peninsula on the northern end of Baffin Island, and Seymour Island, a tiny island just north of Bathurst Island.

Climate change appears to be a major threat to ivory gulls because it alters ice formation: Ivory gulls nest on top of mountains, surrounded by glaciers, but they spend their winters floating through the icy waters of Davis Strait on multi-year sea ice.

“This is a bird that is associated almost entirely with pack ice,” said Dick Canning, a member of the COSEWIC committee.

Its nesting grounds on the Brodeur Peninsula — “one of its key breeding locations in Canada” — has also suffered some disturbance from diamond exploration, Canning said. Toxic contaminants are also taking a toll on the reproductive health of the ivory gulls’ population.

COSEWIC says another major threat is “the illegal shooting of adults for food, particularly in West Greenland during spring and fall migration.”

“Those are birds that would normally nest on Ellesmere Island,” Canning said.

Population counts done during the early 1980s found about 2,400 ivory gulls, while a survey done by the Canadian Wildlife Service in 2005 found only about 200 birds — a population drop of 90 per cent.

“If that continues, they’ll be toast, so we list them as endangered and hope things turn around,” Canning said.

According to COSEWIC, the population of Atlantic walrus has also dropped in some areas.

About 15,000 walrus are thought to belong to the Baffin Bay-High Arctic population, which Canada and Greenland share. The average annual hunt of animals from this stock from 1996-2001 was 124 — 12 in Canada, and 110 in Greenland.

This level of harvest, says COSEWIC, is not sustainable, because walrus only calve every three years.

But some say Greenland is actually hunting between 300 and 600 walrus a year, a function of a growing hunger for ivory rather than for meat.

“Greenland certainly seems to be a big part of the problem, but this doesn’t let us off our own responsibilities,” said Dr. Andrew Trites of COSEWIC.

The population of walrus in the Northern Hudson Bay-Davis Strait may also be in decline, because hunters say they are not seeing walrus as frequently.

“We have a lot of uncertainty about how many walrus are in the Arctic, and how many are taken,” Trites said. “There’s no single person taking too many. The problem is that collectively, you just take one here and one there, and it adds up to be a lot of dead walrus over time… like ice melting, you don’t see it trickling away until it’s almost all gone.”

Climate change may also make walrus more vulnerable to decline. Higher ocean temperatures and less ice means there is less of the food and cold water that walrus prefer. Warmer conditions may eventually increase hunting pressure too, so walrus will be hauling out in more concentrated areas and in more predictable places, making them easier to kill.

Trites said there is a need for more research projects involving marine biologists and hunters.

“We’re suggesting that numbers may be lower than people think, that walrus are probably in trouble, and they need help,” he said. “We’re not trying to impede people from doing what they want. We’re saying take some action.”

Tagak Curley, the MLA for Rankin Inlet-North, issued a statement last week saying that COSEWIC has not done enough consultation work with Canadian Inuit.

“It is simply irresponsible to suggest that the harvesting activities of Canadian Inuit are to blame for any decline that may have occurred with this species. I call on COSEWIC to review its findings and actually use the knowledge of the Inuit who have harvested walrus in a sustainable manner for generations,” Curley said.