Feature Story

Polar bears are in serious trouble. As Arctic sea ice speeds toward another record low this year, more polar bears have been seen swimming in open water off the northern coast of Alaska -- when they would normally be on stable ice.

Although polar bears are strong swimmers, scientists are worried to see bears swimming so far from the nearest shore or sea ice -- one was seen at least 60 miles from shore. Such long distances can lead to exhaustion or drowning in the search for the sea ice they need to hunt seals, den and mate.

“We have some observations of bears swimming into shore when the sea ice was not visible on the horizon," said biologist Steven Amstrup, a polar bear expert from the U.S. Geological Survey. “In some of these cases, the bears arrive so spent energetically, that they literally don’t move for a couple days after hitting shore.�?

Read more from the Christian Science Monitor.

Defenders Updates

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