The demise of the well-known Canadian polar bear biologist is a tragic loss for science – Watts Up With That?
Reposted by Polar Bear Science
Markus Dyck, a renowned Canadian polar bear biologist, died along with two crew members in a helicopter crash near Resolute Bay, Nunavut on Sunday, April 25, 2021. Dyck and the crew began this year’s survey of Lancaster Sound (Crockford) polar bear subpopulation, which had run out of population since 1997.
From the first report in CBC News on Monday April 26th:
Three people are dead after a helicopter crash near Resolute Bay, Nunavut, during a trip to study polar bear populations in Lancaster Sound, the Prime Minister says.
It happened near Griffith Island and involved a Great Slave Helicopters AS350-B2.
A press release from Yellowknife’s Great Slave Helicopters on Monday morning said two flight crews and a wildlife biologist were on board. Nobody survived, the company says.
The helicopter crash site was near Griffith Island, near Resolute in the central Canadian Arctic.
The wildlife biologist was identified as Markus Dyck from Igloolik on Wednesday, CBC News reported yesterday:
Dyck was researching the bear populations in Lancaster Sound for the Nunavut government on the day the helicopter crashed. Two other crew members also died.
Lemelin said Dyck was openly in favor of community-based polar bear management.
“Markus was one of those people who fell in love with the bears and respected them highly and dedicated his life to them,” he said.
Lemelin said Dyck told him two weeks ago that he was going to work in the fields.
“He worked for Nunavut and worked on integrating traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge, studying all kinds of research, and doing the very important sampling that is necessary.”
The Igloolik-based scientist challenged environmental groups who said the bears would go away. He also advocated incorporating traditional knowledge into research, Lemelin said.
“What preoccupied him was the ability of the Inuit and Cree to live with the polar bears in order to continue traditional harvesting practices and to manage the polar bears sustainably and respectfully over the long term,” said Lemelin.
The accident is a powerful reminder of the dangers of Arctic exploration, which almost always uses fossil fuel helicopters (Nunatsiaq News, April 27, 2021):
As a current member of the international polar bear specialist group that deals with the global management of polar bear populations, Dyck has remained a “definite” force for community-based polar bear management in the highly political world of polar bear research, said Lemelin.
Dyck, who holds a Masters degree from the University of Manitoba, has been certified as a wildlife biologist with the Wildlife Society according to his LinkedIn profile.
Before joining the GN, he was a senior instructor in the environmental technology program at Nunavut Arctic College, Iqaluit.
Polar bear examinations – and the sometimes dangerous conditions that come with it – were nothing new to Dyck.
In 2014, he told Nunatsiaq News that the first year of the M’Clintock Polar Bear Survey had been plagued by fog in an area of thick ice.
“Blizzards, we had fog – we had to sleep in the helicopter on the sea ice one night because we had nowhere to fly,” said Dyck.
Mark Mallory, a seabird biologist who knew Dyck well, said working in helicopters in the high Arctic is “dangerous stuff.”
“Working in helicopters at this time of year when things change and you start getting moisture in the air and the wind comes up and you are in this intercountry exchange … this is a terrible time to work there”, said Mallory.
“A lot of people think when you’re out and about that it looks so fun. You’re on a plane counting animals. But it’s actually pretty dangerous. There is no getting around it: If you do this work in harsh conditions, you are taking risks. Mallory and Lemelin said Sunday’s crash brought back memories of other helicopter crashes that killed researchers in the High Arctic: in 2000 when two wildlife biologists died near Resolute Bay and in 2013 when a pilot , Scientists and the commanding officer of CCGS Amundsen near Banks Island died
References
Crockford, SJ 2021. Polar Bear Condition Report 2020. Global Warming Policy Foundation Report 48, London.
Like this:
Loading…
Comments are closed.