Whales spotted in unusual areas
 Humpback and fin whales swam hundreds of miles north of their usual habitat this summer in what could be another sign of the effects of global warming and the shifting Arctic ecosystem. Humpbacks were spotted over the summer in the Beaufort Sea east of Barrow, the northernmost community in the United States. Fin whales were detected by acoustic monitoring in the Chukchi Sea, more than 300 miles north of their normal range. Both species normally stay south of the Bering Strait in Alaska waters.
The federal Minerals Management Service oversees lease sales for offshore petroleum drilling in these waters and some of the whales were spotted by either observers involved with the oil industry or involved with barge traffic. Spokesman Gary Strasburg said a sighting of an endangered species in a new area would not mean an immediate change in how the agency regulates petroleum exploration and it will take more time to determine whether the presence of humpbacks is a trend, and if so, for the agency determine the appropriate response.
However further studies should now be carried out of the animals' habits before industrial activity is allowed to expand off Alaska's northern shores as no one was expecting humpbacks near the activity connected to Outer Continental Shelf lease sales. The presence of both whales so far north now has significant implications. Humpback sightings may indicate a recovering population expanding its range or desperate animals in search of food.
Sheela McLean, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service in Juneau, said humpbacks range widely and have been previously spotted on the Russian part of the Chukchi Sea. However, humpbacks are not usually associated with pack ice, so sightings farther north might be shifts in distribution caused by climate change This year was a record low year for pack ice. The National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder in September recorded 1.65 million square miles of sea ice. That's 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000.
Permits issued in 2007 for exposure of marine mammals to noise from seismic activities in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas covered neither humpback nor fin whales and they don’t take into account the government's own research indicating how easily whales can be deflected from their intended paths. The noise could have consequences for whales' feeding behavior, especially mothers migrating with their young. Full-grown humpback whales average more than 40 feet long and weigh 25 to 35 tons. Fin whales are longer and more slender, growing to nearly 88 feet - second only to blue whales.
Other species that use the Chukchi Sea are also behaving differently apparently because of climate change - gray whales seeking new feeding areas and walrus congregating on Alaska's northwest shore this summer instead of on pack ice that had receded far beyond the continental shelf.
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