Sea ice affects Arctic communities and wildlife such as polar bears and walruses, and it helps regulate the planet's temperature by influencing the circulation of the atmosphere and ocean.
Several communities of killer whale seem to favor beach and ice floe ambush approaches, snatching seals and walruses or even sea birds from their resting places.
But it can also harm whales, dolphins and walruses that rely on underwater sound for navigating, catching prey and communicating, according to environmental groups.
Walruses Walruses might look chubby, but measurements of adult females in Greenland found they were 18% blubber and 44% muscle.
Half-melted snow, partly covered with moss, sharp stones, and skeletons of walruses and polar-bears, lie all about, their gigantic limbs in a state of green decay.
