(soft music)
- I've known the Unalakleet river,
probably ever since I was a little boy.
I've traveled 40 to 50 miles up that river.
I'm a commercial fisherman and a hunter.
I hunt and I fish for my food to put on the table.
And I love it.
I'm Jerry Ivanoff, born and raised in Unalakleet, Alaska.
I fear.
I fear not for myself, but for the future generations,
the lack of ice,
the lack of snow has an effect on the animals and the fish that
we depend on to live.
(upbeat music)
- [Mellisa Johnson] The Arctic report card workshop
here in Nome, Alaska
has been an opportunity for indigenous people
who are along the Bering Sea coast
to share their experiences
about the impacts of climate change
for our future generations.
- The Arctic Report Card
is an annually produced peer reviewed report
on the state of the Arctic.
- The annual arctic report card says,
"The pace of sea ice decline and surface ocean warming is
unprecedented."
- The US government scientists say there is an unparalleled
period of warmth in the Arctic.
- This year for the first time
we are including a chapter on the
indigenous perspective.
Specifically, it will be a chapter focused on
the changing Bering Sea.
- I think observation is very important.
- My grandparents,
they taught me how to look in the sky
and observe the clouds.
And they used to call me their, their weather person.
- My father was very aware of the environment,
and the weather,
the weather conditions, the ice conditions.
So he spent a lot of time talking to me about
what to look for and what to watch out for.
- Scientists will come in,
spend a year or two in the Arctic,
then gather a whole bunch of information and then go back.
The big advantage is that indigenous people have is that
they're there the whole time.
- [Melissa Johnson] And they've seen significant changes
that should have been documented
starting 20 or 30 years ago.
- For many years,
the formula has been to invite one or two indigenous experts
into a room full of scientists.
To hear what they have to say at this workshop here in Nome,
we are trying to shift that balance in a major way where
essentially I'm the only scientist in the room.
- And we are good stewards. We never depleted any stocks.
We kept our land and our waters clean.
- When I was growing up,
the Bering Sea would be completely locked up.
And now what ice we get is, we call it Sikuliaq,
that's the young ice that
formed up from the bottom of the ocean as slush it
floats up.
Now it's thin, it's easy to break up.
- We need the ice and with it diminishing,
our walruses are in danger.
Even the whales that I depend on are in danger.
- We have frequent storm surges,
flooding hotter temperatures, not only in the air,
but in the water.
And it's affecting the wellbeing of fish,
plants and animals.
- [Jerry Ivanoff] With the water being
10 to 15 degrees warmer in the Norton Sound,
I caught so many belly up fish in 2019
I've never caught before.
My nets actually were totally stinky.
- The biggest change I see recently is
a lack of the sea birds,
the migratory birds.
- As a child, we had more subsistence foods.
We didn't have a lot of money,
but we had a lot of food which makes up for everything.
We were rich with our foods.
Today, I worry about that food disappearing.
- We're having to adapt, to change our ways of hunting.
- It's a whole different,
different world that we're gonna have to learn to deal with.
- They're seeing now what many of us are starting to see
or will be seeing soon and the longer we ignore these kinds
of stories and these kinds of examples of what's in store
for us, well the worse things are gonna be.
- It is critically important,
for indigenous experts from Alaska,
like Jerry and Melissa, to come to major scientific meetings
like the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco,
to share their observations about the warming Arctic.
- 10 Years ago,
our sea ice was about 20 miles outside of our communities.
And now it's at minimum 50 miles out.
It's just up to us
to continue to adapt and not just stay stagnant.
(mumbles)
- [Jerry Ivanoff] I feel very positive that
our voices are finally being heard.