Pattern in arrival of polar bears to Iceland

A polar bear in Skagafjörður in 2016.

A polar bear in Skagafjörður in 2016. Rax / Ragnar Axelsson

"Polar bear used to arrive in Iceland when there was a lot of pack ice but now we seem to have entered a period of time when polar bears arrive when pack ice rapidly melts beneath them," says Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir, geographer and professor at the University of Iceland speaking to mbl.is. 

A polar bear sighting was reported in Melrakkaslétta on Saturday but the search was called off yesterday as nothing was found. 

Jónsdóttir says that June conditions were however feasible for polar bears to arrive on Iceland's shores when pack ice was reaching towards Skagafjörður in North Iceland. 

"Then we had some North Easterly currents which caused the pack ice to break up rapidly and it's as if the bears are always getting into trouble in these conditions. They've drifted far east and then suddenly the ice breaks up beneath them and they have to reach shore rather than returning."

She believes a pattern is being formed in the arrival of polar bears to Iceland. "If there is a bear there it's a similar pattern to 2008 and 2010. We've seen this a few times now since 2008 when three polar bears arrived and then a few times after that. " She adds that polar bears can swim very far and that icebergs don't even have to be close to the coast for them to get from Greenland all the way to Iceland. 

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