Abstract
Profound climate change-driven effects on the Arctic and sub-Arctic ecosystem have been evident for quite some time.1 In this "New Arctic" the changing ecosystem processes are accelerating anthropogenic changes; including increased marine shipping (commercial and recreational), offshore oil exploration and development, accidental oil spills, and habitat alterations. These are widely recognized serious threats to seasonal migration routes, feeding, nursery and breeding areas. The ability of marine mammals to compensate and adapt to these anthropogenic-driven changes is unclear, as major scientific baseline data gaps exist on local and regional population health, abundance, distribution and trends. In the immediate future many of these anthropogenic changes (i.e., deflection/disturbance; ship strike; line/gear entanglement; oil pollution; accidental discharge; bilge discharge; introduction of invasive species, habitat fragmentation/destruction, etc.) most likely emerge as important players in determining Arctic marine mammal health.
Furthermore, in this changing "New" Arctic, shifting of species specific ecological constraints and epidemiological constraints are occurring as well. With these altered community ecosystem relationships within a transformed SEA-ICE landscape, species distribution shifts, new Arctic seasonal residents (i.e., orca, stellar sea lion, humpback, fin whale, large sharks, etc.) and new disease dynamics are anticipated and expected to alter morbidity and mortality rates among Arctic marine mammals; unfortunately natural causes of morbidity and mortality are generally not well documented for Arctic Marine Mammals.2 Among the best-understood natural factors are predation, malnutrition and starvation, and human interactions. Infectious disease burden (i.e., micro and macro-pathogens) and their population significance, however, are mostly unknown with annual morbidity and mortality rates being "guestimates" at best. With the emergence of a new ulcerative disease syndrome (2011) of unknown etiology among ice seals (primarily ringed seals), and young Pacific walrus the later conclusion may need to be revised in the near future.3,4
So without a doubt in this new dynamic Arctic, the marine mammal health status quo is going to be redefined, be it through infectious, non-infectious causes or their multilayered non-linear interplay. To address the complexity of the new Arctic, its human wildlife health interaction, an Arctic marine mammal food safety and food security based research perspective is needed; this approach is based on the integration of ecological and biomedical research that includes the use of traditional ecological knowledge and subsistence hunter-based syndromic disease surveillance networks. This integrated approach goes beyond discovery of "new" or old pathogens and will allow us to explore how top down and bottom up modification of biodiversity, habitat alterations, and evolving Arctic food and pathogen webs will be shaping Arctic marine mammal subsistence population health now and in the near future.
Literature Cited
1. Arctic Report Card: Update 2012. Tracking recent environmental changes. Website url: www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard.
2. Burek KA, Gulland FM, O'Hara TM. 2008. Effects of climate change on Arctic marine mammal health. Ecol Appl. 18(2 Suppl):S126–34.
3. C. Goertz (Eds). 2012. Proceedings of the Arctic Pinniped Disease Investigation Workshop Alaska Marine Science Symposium Wednesday, Jan 18th.
4. Garlich-Miller J, Neakok W, Stimmelmayr R. 2011. Field Report: Walrus Carcass Survey, Point Lay Alaska September 11–15, 2011. US Fish and Wildlife Service, Marine Mammals Management.