AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
Thursday, June 18, 2009
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A new study has found a disease spread from Atlantic seals to Alaska sea otters.
Scientists suspect the sea otters in Kachemak Bay are dying as a result of phocine distemper virus.
Marine biologists say the disease found only in the Atlantic Ocean moved into Pacific waters due to climate change. They say as Arctic sea ice continues to diminish, animals no longer have a barrier between the two oceans.
And the widening water way opens up the issue of disease for several animals.
"It's just a hypothesis that global climate change contributed to this," marine mammal biologist Verena Gill said. "The sea ice in the Arctic has diminished such that seal populations from the Atlantic can overlap with seal populations from the Pacific. Their migration patterns change and potentially animals in the Atlantic gave it to animals in the Pacific."
The Alaska sea otters are on the endangered species list. Biologists fear the virus could affect the otter recovery effort.
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=10560283
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A new study has found a disease spread from Atlantic seals to Alaska sea otters.
Scientists suspect the sea otters in Kachemak Bay are dying as a result of phocine distemper virus.
Marine biologists say the disease found only in the Atlantic Ocean moved into Pacific waters due to climate change. They say as Arctic sea ice continues to diminish, animals no longer have a barrier between the two oceans.
And the widening water way opens up the issue of disease for several animals.
"It's just a hypothesis that global climate change contributed to this," marine mammal biologist Verena Gill said. "The sea ice in the Arctic has diminished such that seal populations from the Atlantic can overlap with seal populations from the Pacific. Their migration patterns change and potentially animals in the Atlantic gave it to animals in the Pacific."
The Alaska sea otters are on the endangered species list. Biologists fear the virus could affect the otter recovery effort.
http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=10560283