A few 'floaters' were noted including one dead Baird's Beaked Whale (very old male), and seven dead Walrus. The Walrus carcasses were initially throught attibutable to probable natural mortality given the relative close proximity (60-100nm) to the huge Round Island rookery in northern Bristol Bay. However, now in light of concern regarding dead seabirds and current very warm waters in the Bering Sea this summer makes me reconsider that something more sinister may be going on; the current El Nino a contributing suspect. Casually stumbling across 7 dead walrus in just a few days seems like quite a few and suggests that there were many more floating around out there. Sea temperatures 61F (13C) in coastal Bristol Bay?!?! 10F (~6C) above normal! A few dead seabirds, mostly fulmars, shearwaters, and murres were seen belly up, but these seemed like a natural kind of mortality with the encounter rate subjectively not thought to be unusal in these waters where seabird densities can be phenomenal.
Incredible weather during the first half -- often flat becalmed mirror-like Beaufort 00 with nary a ripple from horizon to horizon in an extensive area of eerie and bizarre aurora-aqua green water (looked like an over chlorinated swimming pool) which no one can seem to explain at the moment,except that it was warmer (59F / 12.3C) and less saline than surrounding sea water outside his visually well marked and extensive zone -- maybe a dome of plankton soup and pack ice melt(?) ... but if so, why warmer'? ...or run-off, but from where? -- there are no large rivers or glacial drainage feeding into that area to create a feature as vast as this, but it was in just these waters where the greatest concentrations of large whales and Harbor Porpoise were including the Right Whales and that unexpected group of White-sided Dolphins.
Anyway, after analysis of water samples and a little more investigation, we should get it sorted out eventually. This water was so pale and bizarre that it reflected off the overcast, creating a feature reminiscent to "ice blink" of polar ice edge, but here, turning the clouds aqua and horizon a purple haze. With 80,000+ hours at sea over the past 25 years, I've never seen anything like it. This was so weird with a greasy feel as to border on nauseating at times. Conditions were more "typical" Bering Sea during the second half -- always overcast, off and on foggy, drizzly, and a 15-20-knot wind chop. Richard Rowlett (Pagodroma@aol.com) VIA SEABIRD.