A recently released study revealed whales traveling in the Bering Strait have increased according to a University of Washington news release.
Researchers used underwater microphones to track whales by their sounds for the last three years. The recordings revealed more Arctic and sub-Arctic whales moving through a "narrow choke point," according to the university news release.
"It's not particularly surprising to those of us who work up in the Arctic," Stafford said. "The Arctic seas are changing. We are seeing and hearing more species, farther north, more often. And that's a trend that is going to continue."
Recordings showed Artic bowhead and beluga whales migrating through the region from the Arctic south seasonally to spend the winter in the Bering Sea, according to the news release. A large number of sub-Arctic fin, killer, and humpback whales were also detected traveling north through the Bering Strait to feed in the Chuckchi Sea.
Stafford put microphones below the water's surface and recorded in the winter and summer from 2009 to 2012.
Recordings also picked up ships during the summer "to travel through two international shipping lanes," according to the news release.
This increases the chance of a possible collision between whales and ships.
"These animals are expanding their range," Stafford said. "They're taking advantage of regions in seasons that they may not have previously."
The waterway is 58 miles wide and maximum 160 feet deep, with one-third of its span in U.S. waters, according to the news release. The rest is in Russia.
It connects the Chukchi Sea in the north with the Bering Sea in the south.
"Marine mammals rely primarily on sound to navigate, to find food and to find mates. Sound is their modality," Stafford said. "If we increase the ambient sound level, it has the potential to reduce the communication range of cetaceans and all marine mammals."
Scientists claim the strait was frozen over during the ice age, which formed a land bridge that ancient humans used to travel from Russia to North America.
The research was recently presented at the Ocean Sciences meeting in Honolulu.
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