Residents and researchers say the problem has been building for decades as a warming climate touches multiple facets of life in the far north — thawing permafrost, disruptions in hunting patterns and shorter periods of coastal ice that historically protected coastal communities from powerful storms. Other factors include development and soil conditions.
The changes have increased vulnerability to foodborne illnesses and raised concerns about food security, according to studies by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. The group and state health officials say they have so far not heard of anyone getting sick.
There were once at least 50 ice cellars in Point Hope, an Inupiat whaling village built on a triangular spit surrounded by a large inlet and the Chukchi and Arctic oceans. Now, fewer than 20 remain, according to village services supervisor Russell Lane, a whaling captain who has lived his 52 years in the community of 750. The problems with cellars have become more pronounced in the past two decades, he said.
To compensate, Point Hope whaling captains have use of three walk-in freezers that were donated for use by the whaling community. But the much colder freezers do not impart the taste of aged whale meat so favored throughout the region. Lane himself initially stores meat in the traditional ice cellar his wife s family owns, frequently checking it until it reaches the right maturity before he transfers it to a freezer.
It s definitely a challenge at this time to be able to feed our people that acquired taste, Lane said.
Despite the unprecedented rate of climate change today, however, ice cellars failed in the past, including one account of a cellar developing mold in the early 1900s, according to a study published in 2017 that looked at traditional cellars in Utqiagvik, formerly named Barrow, following reports of flooded and collapsed cellars. The study, funded by the National Science Foundation and George Washington University, found ice cellars don t meet federally recommended temperature standards, but allow the culturally preferred aging to occur.
The study was inconclusive about the cause of ice cellar failures, citing an absence of extensive scientific analysis. Researchers mapped 71 ice cellar locations around town and monitored five functioning cellars from 2005 to 2015, finding little thermal change over that relatively short timeframe. One of those cellars has since failed, however, and another is starting to collapse, according to one of the study s authors, George Washington University research scientist Kelsey Nyland.
The study concluded that while a changing climate has great potential to affect ice cellars, there are other factors, including soil conditions and urban development. For example, some Utqiagvik residents might inadvertently warm the soil beneath their cellars by putting sheds on top of the entrances to keep them free of snow, Nyland said.
Climate change, air temperatures, all these physical changes are affecting them, she said. But also, a lot of it has to do with development and modern life in an arctic setting.
To adapt to the new environment, the village of Kaktovik, on the Beaufort Sea coast, took ambitious steps after it lost all but one family s cellar to flooding.
In 2013, the village launched a project to build a community ice cellar incorporating traditional designs with contemporary technology used in Alaska s North Slope oil fields — thermosyphons, off-grid tubelike refrigeration devices that cool the ground by transferring heat outside.
