Ocean Health is Our Health

The northwest Arctic shorelines are wild, dynamic, productive, and extensive. For thousands of years, people have relied upon these productive coastal areas and continue to do so today.

Bering Land Bridge National Preserve helps protect 571 miles of coastal habitats including vast, shallow lagoons, large estuaries teeming with birds, sandy capes, salt marshes, mudflats, brackish wetlands, small freshwater lakes and ponds, dunes, and the world’s northernmost eelgrass beds. Barrier islands protect the lagoons and estuaries from the open ocean while hosting a tremendous diversity of wildlife including waterfowl, muskoxen, brown bears, and caribou.

When marine debris enters these complex and intricately connected habitats, it can cause a wide range of impacts.

 

Sandhill cranes flying across tundra wetlands.

NPS Photo / Savannah Glasscock

Habitats

Marine debris can dramatically change critical marine habitats - scraping away, cutting into, or smothering vegetation and sediments.

Once debris settles in the sediment, it becomes part of the habitat, taking valuable habitat away from species that rely on these environments.

Marine debris can also contain toxins and contaminants, such as oil, insecticides, and poisons, which can affect habitats as well as animals.

 

A bearded seal lying on the edge of the sea ice.

Image courtesy of USGS

Animals

Fish, seabirds, seals, and whales, among other marine species, are harmed by marine debris in a variety of ways.

Swallowing debris can take up stomach space, block digestion, puncture the digestive tract, or release toxic chemicals. Getting caught, or entangled, in marine debris can make it difficult for animals to move, find food, feed young, or find mates.

Both ingestion and entanglement can have fatal consequences.

The health of animals is central to maintaining thriving habitats and Arctic communities.

 

The shoreline of Deering, Alaska.

NPS Photo

People

“The Arctic is home to cultures, knowledge, languages, people who have survived many changes already through the millennia and who will continue to be “at home” in the Arctic for many more years to come. If there are any who are interested in the health and well-being of the Arctic, it is us. I believe maintaining this strong, fundamental link that we have with the natural world will be the measure for how well we are taking care of the Arctic and its seas.”

Vera Metcalf, Siberian Yupik, Director of the Eskimo Walrus Commission, Advocate
for subsistence lifestyles of Arctic Indigenous peoples

Communities on both sides of the Bering Strait depend on marine resources for subsistence, recreation, art, cultural purposes, and the health and well-being of families and communities.

Changes to marine habitats and impacts to animals can have long-lasting effects on the people who live in and depend on these environments.

We can all help to keep marine debris out of the ocean and away from harming habitats, animals, and people!

 

Explore more about impacts of marine debris in this region: