This page created by 6th grade students from Fall Creek
as part of a Goals 2000 grant/ created 3/17/99/ Updated 3/17/99/ mah
The Arctic Ocean

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Characteristics

     The Arctic Ocean is in a particularly cold area of the earth.  It is located around the area of the North Pole, and much of it is frozen.  What part isn't frozen is icy cold and rarely reaches temperatures above freezing. The air temperature is usually even colder. During the warmest parts of the year there are many ice bergs which break away from the larger ice pack making travel very hazardous to humans and animals alike.  This is an area of the earth where life is very difficult for all creatures.
 
 

Use by Humans

 Several groups of native peoples inhabit this region, and all use the waters of the ocean
for food.  Their diets have traditionally consisted largely of protein from what were once the abundant fish and other animals that existed in this area.  The peoples that inhabit this, what would seem to us,  an inhospitable region are believed to have migrated to this area  many thousands of years ago during one of several ice ages.  These people are hardy types similar to the American Inuit who have typically been nomadic and spent their lives moving, ever in search of enough food to hunt and fish for their survival.   However, This is changing due to modern influences.  Most of the peoples who live near this ocean are excellent mariners due largely to their dependence on the life in and around the water for their survival.

Water Quality

     This once pristine water is, like many other things in our overly inhabited world, suffering from not only over use, but also from misuse.  Pollution from around the world endangers the lives of all Arctic creatures.  Oil spills, from ships traveling through the Arctic Ocean from the Northern oil fields have led to great concern from ecology minded people everywhere.  Also the green house effect is warming the water and leading to the demise of many types of life, both plant and animal. There is a concerted effort from people everywhere to protect and preserve the quality of this unique ecosystem.
 
 
 
 

     Even though temperatures are very cold, there is an abundance of life both plant and
animal in the Arctic Ocean.  Some of the animals that live in this region of the Earth are seals, walruses, many varieties of fish, and a variety of mammals ranging from small rodents to the mighty gray whale.  Some animals that exist in these waters are wide ranging and travel from the frozen north to the tropical waters off of Mexico in the Pacific.  Again we refer to the gray whale, which eats huge quantities of plankton and other plant life off the coast of Mexico, but returns to the frozen North to mate.  Other types of animals pretty much remain in this region all year, as do the polar bears.  There is relatively little plant life in this ocean due to the Polar ice mass which blocks sunlight needed for photosynthesis.