By Barry Wigmore
Last updated at 4:38 PM on 29th August 2008

Pictured: The nine polar bears left to drown by the retreating ice

Nine polar bears are lost in the Arctic sea and face an impossible 400-mile swim back to shore because of global warming, scientists say.

The bears plunged into the sea after the ice floe where they lived melted, and although land was only 60 miles away, their homing instinct sent them north towards the ever-shrinking polar ice cap.

Scientists are now considering sending a ship, like a modern Noah’s Ark, in a bid to rescue some of the bears.

At least nine bears were spotted in open ocean miles from their normal hunting area by US government oil survey scientists flying over  Alaska’s Chukchi Sea.

Scientists found this polar bear swimming in Alaska's Chukchi Sea and fear it and eight others will drown in an impossible 400 mile swim back to shore

Scientists say the bears would have swam towards the edge of the  Arctic ice shelf, which has melted so much that the nearest land was 400 miles away.

Experts with WWF, the World Wide Fund  for Nature, fear the bears can’t make it.

Polar bears are strong swimmers but would not be able to make it that far.

One group is known to have swum 100  miles but they arrived exhausted and several drowned on the way.

In May, the US Department of the Interior listed polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because the Arctic ice they hunt on is melting so quickly.

Margaret Williams, Director of WWF’s Alaska  office:  ‘The Arctic is a vast ocean and to find nine bears swimming in one area is extremely worrying because it means that dozens more are probably in the same  predicament.’   

Dr Williams said animal groups were considering asking the US government to send a Coast Guard ship to rescue some of the bears.

Her colleague, WWF polar bear biologist  Geoff York, said: ‘As climate change continues to dramatically disrupt the Arctic, polar bears and their cubs are being forced to swim longer distances to find food and  habitat.’

Arctic scientists said they feared the annual ice-melt had passed its ‘tipping point’ where not enough freezes each winter to make up for what melted the previous summer.

As less ice freezes, the winter sea remains warmer, and becomes hotter the following summer causing even more ice to melt.

Senior scientist Dr Mark Serreze said: ‘The summer melting used to slow down by the beginning of September.

'We thought it was slowing this year, but it’s suddenly sped up instead.'

The Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast is home to one of  two populations of Alaska polar bears.

Professor Richard Steiner, of the University of Alaska's Marine Advisory Programme, said: ‘The bottom line here is that polar bears need sea ice, sea ice is decaying, and  the bears are in very serious trouble.'


Article: HERE