Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 08:39
Forums
Bering Ecosystem Change

Throughout your expedition, about how thick was the ice and were there any areas where the ice was too thick to go through? Also, there are a couple pictures of walruses, (which are really cool), do you know how heavy they are? I've seen a couple of images of sea life with huge packs of walruses sitting on one part of the ice. Do you know about how much weight the ice you were going by can support before breaking? Sorry about all the ?'s. Smile

 

-Regan Fitzgerald, period:1 

Fri, 03/21/2008 - 14:02

Craig Kasemodel

Hi Regan, The questions are great! Keep them coming! Walruses weigh about 750 pounds (341kg) at age 2. At full maturity, the females, 11 or 12 years old, weigh 1500-2000 pounds and males, 14-16 years, will weigh 2000 pounds (909kg). The sea ice has ranged from 0m (the open water or leads) to 2m with the ice ridges being 2-2.5 times thicker. We try to avoid the ice ridges as much as possible by manevouring around them and going through the thin ice or leads as much as possible. For a human to walk safely on the ice, it should be at least 6" inches thick. For a walrus, the ice should be somewhat thicker, but we have seen them on some pretty thin ice if they are alone. For a haulout, the areas of large congregations, the ice should be at least one to two feet thick.