NUNAVUT
Ice formation in western Hudson Bay is about three weeks late, say officials, meaning polar bears and hunters will have to wait longer than usual to hunt.

Although ice started forming in Hudson Bay around Nov. 1, close to the 30-year normal date of Nov. 5, the expansion of ice outward from the Manitoba and Nunavut coast is "much delayed," according to information from the Canadian Ice Service. That puts ice formation along the western shore of Hudson Bay about two to three weeks behind schedule, with the ice extent currently resembling what is normally seen in the third week of October.

At this time of year, ice would normally cover the entire northwest half of the bay and extend 100 kilometres offshore along its southern edge, the federal agency adds.

"It's a continuous band but it's only very solid right close to the coast and in the inlets. As you start to move offshore ... it almost looks like a comb, like all the little fingers of a comb pointing out into the bay," said Trudy Wohlleben, a senior ice forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service.

"It's actually very similar to last year and it seems that in the last 10 years or so, it's kind of been more the norm than the opposite. We only really had one or two years where the ice was sort of greater than normal rather than less than normal in the 2000s."

Late ice conditions will probably become the new normal, said Wohlleben, especially when they update the climate "normals" or averages. Right now, they are basing their climate data on 1971 to 2000 averages.

"I think once we have our charts from 1981 to 2010, it may start to look a little more normal than less than normal," she said.

Churchill, Man., Mayor Mike Spence said a few polar bears were still wandering into town but fewer than last year, when the last one was seen in the community Dec. 5 or so.

"Last year, it was more of a problem," he said. "This year, there are still bears in the area but we had a freeze up about the 18th and 19th of November. Quite a few of the bears got on the ice and then the winds pushed the ice out. Historically, the bears would have been all gone by now but because of (the) changing climate, we're seeing bears in the area."

He added it could be another week or so before all the bears leave town.

Spence said, speaking with the conservation department, the bears look healthy, in good shape and managed to catch "quite a few" seals.

Manitoba Conservation estimates the polar bear population in the western Hudson Bay area, from the Manitoba/Ontario border to Chesterfield Inlet, to be about 935, according to its website. The majority of those animals hunt on the bay's ice from mid-November to July.

"Our wildlife management research section continues to monitor the impacts of climate change on wildlife and their habitat especially on polar bears," stated Drikus Gissing, Nunavut's director of wildlife in an e-mail. "Where possible we will adapt our management system to reduce other human stressors on wildlife populations impacted by climate change."

Hudson Bay is normally completely frozen by the first week of December, something Wohlleben said will only happen at the end of that month this year.

If Hudson Bay doesn't freeze over until January, that would be a first, she added.

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