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June 17, 2012

Scientists who visit the Arctic sometimes see the region’s most famed inhabitants: polar bears. Photographer Chris Linder saw this mother and cub from the Swedish ice breaker Oden during a 2007 expedition to the Arctic Ocean to study hydrothermal communities along the Gakkel Ridge. Each year, polar bears find less sea ice from which to hunt seals, their primary source of food. To find out why, WHOI scientists are studying the retreat of sea ice caused by global warming. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)