On thin ice

The Alaskan North Pacific and Arctic oceans – their seas, bays, fjords and ice pack – are home to a dazzling array of marine mammals. These animals – ice seals, polar bears, walruses, and bowhead whales – are uniquely adapted to exist in one of the most extreme environments on earth: the frozen Arctic. Yet, despite the fact that their habitat is relatively remote, these marine mammals are facing very serious threats from global warming, the sources of which originate far from the Arctic.