Why are thousands of walruses beaching themselves in Alaska?

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Why are thousands of walruses beaching themselves in Alaska?

On September 17, Arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent for 2014, which according to federal data is the sixth-lowest coverage since the satellite record began in 1979.

"The massive concentration of walruses onshore—when they should be scattered broadly in ice-covered waters—is just one example of the impacts of climate change on the distribution of marine species in the Arctic," Margaret Williams, the managing director of WWF's Arctic program, said in a statement.

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An estimated 35,000 walruses...

...have "hauled out" on a beach near the village of Point Lay in Alaska. The walruses are resting on land, instead of offshore ice, because of "an extreme retreat of Alaska's summer sea ice," according to the US Geological Survey. The USGS say the walruses have been forced onto shore in order to continue their patterns of resting in between feedings from the seafloor. It attributes this trend to summer sea ice moving north of continental waters of the US Chukchi Sea and Russian waters.

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