Documented Fatal Attacks By Polar Bears on Humans in Alaska Doubled with Killing of Mother and Child

Image from wikimedia naturepics online, 2010

On Tuesday, January 17, 2023, at Wales, Alaska, a young mother and her child were killed by a polar bear. The weather was atrocious. Visibility was very bad. The attacks on people started about the middle of the brief, five hour period of daylight at this time of year. Winds were gusting to 50 mph, according to reports form a nearby weather station. This would result in extreme reductions of visibility, near whiteout conditions, at times. The bear started chasing people about 2:30 p.m. Students and adults took refuge in the school, barely able to get the door shut before the bear could enter.  The victims are reported to be 24 year old Summer Myomick and her one year old son Clyde Ongtowasruk. The victim and her one year old sun were killed just outside the school doors.

 

Wales Alaska, on the Alaska mainland, only 50 miles from Russia, NPS photo, Public Domain

 

From adn.com:

Alaska State Troopers on Wednesday identified the victims as 24-year-old St. Michael resident Summer Myomick and 1-year-old Clyde Ongtowasruk.

Troopers said reports of a polar bear attack came in around 2:30 p.m., with initial accounts describing the bear chasing several people before a Wales resident shot and killed the animal “as it attacked the pair.” Myomick was walking with her son between the school and the Wales clinic when the bear attacked them, troopers said.

Polar bear scientist, Susan Crawford, explained the increase in attacks were predictable results of increases in polar bear populations.  From polarbearscience.com:

Polar bear attacks in winter are almost always associated with a bear that has not been able to resume feeding in the fall. More bears and restricted hunting means more young bears (as well as old bears or sick ones) become food stressed because they can’t compete with big mature males for food. Mature bears often steal any seals that young bears are able to kill, making the youngsters desperate for food.

Susan Crawford documents the polar bear population in the region is thriving:

The Chukchi Sea polar bears are currently thriving and numbers may still be increasing (AC SWG 2018; Conn et al. 2021; Regehr et al. 2018; Rode et al. 2014, 2015, 2018).

Crawford predicted the increase in attacks on humans in 2016:

Given the fact that there are now many more polar bears than there were in the 1970s as well as more people living in many coastal Arctic communities, problems with bears in winter are likely to increase, as this winter’s events show. More bears out on the ice in winter (January-March) will almost certainly create more competition for the little bit of food that’s available (seals are hard to catch in winter), which means some bears might increasingly be looking for alternate sources of food onshore.

Polar bear advocate Geoff York, the senior director of conservation at Polar Bears International stated the obvious: Documented polar bear fatalities are rare in Alaska. From newsweek:

"I definitely want to emphasize just how rare this attack is. Most
polar bear attacks happen during that ice-free season when it's warmer [and] when there's less sea ice. That's when we've historically seen more issues between humans and bears," York said. "To have a fatal encounter in January, in northern Alaska, is extraordinarily rare."

The last fatal polar bear attack to occur in Alaska was in December 1990. Similar to Tuesday's, the 1990 attack was unprovoked. York said that in 1990, it had been a thin and hungry bear.

There are only three documented cases of fatal polar bear attacks in Alaska. The latest happened on January 17, 2023. The previous case happened on December 9, 1990. The case before that happened in June of 1885. Of the documented three fatal polar bear attacks in Alaska, two have been during the winter.

Numerous articles link the attack to "climate change" on the theory that everything is attributable to climate change. From Geoff York:

"This was in that window where historically people would feel pretty safe. So clearly as these changes are occurring in the ecosystem and with the sea ice in these regions, it's becoming a lot more dynamic.

Sea ice was and is plentiful this winter. An obvious change, the "polar bear" in the room, so to speak, is carefully not mentioned by the polar bear advocates. As noted by Susan Crawford, it is increasing polar bear populations.

Forbid almost all hunting of polar bears. Polar bear populations boom. Unsurprising result: more polar bear attacks on humans. 

The number of documented humans killed by polar bears in Alaska just doubled, on January 17, 2023.

Opinion:

Human populations in the Arctic have increased as well, from tourism and researchers. Increasing human populations are a factor which is often mentioned by polar bear advocates. Increasing polar bear populations are studiously ignored by the old media and the bear advocates. It does not serve the narrative of "climate change" being responsible for everything, especially as polar bears are supposed to be dying off, because of the same "climate change".

The climate is always changing. No one disputes that. What is disputed is how much man can influence the changing climate, whether the changing climate is good or bad, how fast it is happening, and how to deal with it. 

More and more people are noting those who push "climate change" as a religious doctrine, are those who believe they benefit the most from government control over everything in every life on earth.  

"Climate change" is not a scientific hypothesis. It can never be disproved. If nothing changes, climate change is coming. If it gets warmer, "climate change" is responsible. if it gets colder "climate change" is responsible. It is the perfect excuse for those in power to do whatever they want to do with the rest of us. 

©2023 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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