Walrus Gathering on the Alaska Shoreline

Today on "GMA" Sam Champion showed the photograph below of walruses gathered on the Alaska shoreline near Icy Cape. Joel Garlich-Miller, a walrus biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, explained that the walruses might have congregated there because of global warming. “There is a link there that is reasonably strong,” Garlich-Miller said. “It is the absence of sea ice that is causing the animals to use the shoreline.” The lack of ice has caused a shift in the walruses’ movements and has increased their dependence on coastal habitat areas, Garlich-Miller explained. He added that sea ice should reform in the next month or so and then the walruses are expected to resume their normal migration south.