MELTING ICE ON A BERING SEA ISLAND IS A THREAT TO A WAY OF LIFE

The ice cover between Russia and Alaska in the Bering Sea has dropped to the lowest levels in at least forty years. Experts are now trying their best to find out if this is another indicator of climate change or just a fluke. A long-term shift like this could change an entire region significantly. Indigenous villages such as Diomede depend on hunting and fishing. Such communities rely on ice to survive and they would be affected tremendously.

People on Little Diomede feel the change in their Inupiaq cultural lifestyle because they do not know when the crabbing and hunting seasons would begin or how long they would last.

The traditional foods are being missed. People do not use their meat caches anymore (since 2012). Walrus hunters have not been seen hunting walrus for the last 6 years. The foods they consume just come from stores, packed in cans and plastics. The people miss their Eskimo foods because they do not cost money and they taste much better.

Their helicopter service used to be available in the fall and in the summer. Now, it only happens once each week, if weather is good. The price of the service has gone up as well, making it more difficult for the people to avail it.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/qa-bering-sea-island-disappearing-ice-threatens-way-life