International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

the safety of ice or ice dynamics through the season,
including tides and currents, persistent winds of
certain direction, local current gyres unknown to the
oceanographers, recurrent weather cycles, animal
and bird behaviour and many other indicators.
Altogether, experienced hunters may use up to 30
various indicators throughout the winter to monitor
and assess ice safety and availability of game animals.
Value for other IPY science fields. Most of
the information on which hunters based their
assessment of sea ice and of individual ice season is
not available in standard instrumental records. But
thanks to the observational records accumulated
during the SIKU project, we may eventually learn
how to ‘read’ some of the past and current ice data
by applying indigenous indicators. For example,
satellite imagery, the main source of modern
scientific analysis of sea ice conditions, cannot detect
early forms of ice that look like ‘open water’ on the
images, but these early forms of ice formations are
carefully detected by local monitors. The beginning
of the ice season may be thus established with much
higher precision. This same ‘re-calibration’ applies
to the spring break-up time, with local observers
documenting ice deterioration and disintegration
much more intimately than satellite imagery can
ever afford. Local monitors can, similarly, identify
many local forms of ice, including the presence of
thick and/or multi-year ice (Fig. 3.10-11) that is crucial
for ice modelling and assessment, which may not
be easily tracked by other sources. These and other
examples illustrate why many of the sea ice scientists
are now anxious to include indigenous data under
their observation programs (Chapters 3.6 and 5.2)
and why many weather and ice forecasting services
in the post-IPY era are deliberately reaching out to
local stakeholders and their knowledge (Chapter 5.2).
BSSN
The “Bering Sea Sub-Network (BSSN): International
Community-Based Observation Alliance for the Arctic
Observing Network” (IPY no. 247) focused its research
on developing a process for gathering and managing
local observations on the environment and subsistence
harvest in six Bering Sea coastal communities:
Gambell, Sand Point and Togiak in Alaska (Fig. 3.10-
12), U.S., and Kanchalan (Chukotka), Nikolskoye and
Tymlat ( Kamchatka) in Russia. BSSN was implemented
by the Aleut International Association (www.aleutinternational.org)
in collaboration with the University
of Alaska, Anchorage, the Alaska Native Science
Commission, and UNEP/GRID-Arendal (Norway) (www.
bssn.net/). It was also a project of the Conservation
of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Working Group of
the Arctic Council. There were approximately 330
participants in the pilot phase of the project, including
researchers, staff, collaborators and interviewees (Fig.
3.10-13).
The six communities studied during the Pilot Phase
(2007-2009) share a dependency upon the Bering Sea
and its biological resources, such as fish, birds, marine
mammals and other marine organisms. BSSN provided
the opportunity for local communities to contribute
to the overall efforts to increase our knowledge and
understanding about processes affecting the Bering
Sea by sharing local observations and perspectives on
the environment.
Observation and monitoring strategies. In the
BSSN project, for the first time, diverse indigenous
communities formed an organized regional network
for gathering, processing and data storage of local
observations about the change in the environment
and about species important for traditional fishing
and hunting. Particular attention was paid to the
development of standard questionnaire for data
reporting and monitoring, and to the training of local
monitors and research assistants. The BSSN team
developed a network model consisting of the following
steps: 1) a survey utilizing uniform questionnaires to
be used across the area; 2) training of local research
assistants to conduct interviews; and 3) a centralized
database of local datasets to be used for further
community and research needs. Of equal importance
is improving data accuracy as questionnaire entries
are collected by local project associates and entered
in their original languages.
New and improved knowledge. In the BSSN project,
the pilot phase findings point to several trends that
will be tested in further studies, such as 1) the higher
rate of diseased fish (e.g. Whitefish and salmon) on
the Russian side of the Bering Sea, possibly as a result
of anthropogenic factors, such as contamination; 2)
increased instances of encounters with species new
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