This website—designed for Alaska Native subsistence hunters, coastal communities, and others interested in sea ice and walrus—promotes hunter safety, food security, and preservation of cultural heritage. The SIWO provides weekly reports from April through June with information on weather and sea ice conditions relevant to walrus in the northern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea regions of Alaska.

The outlook reports integrate scientific and local knowledge into a single decision support tool that is used by both local and scientific communities, produced with information on weather and sea ice conditions provided by the National Weather Service's Alaska Region and indigenous sea ice experts. The weekly reports from the project's inception in 2010 through the current season are archived and publicly available on the SIWO website. The Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) serves as the SIWO project management office.

Banner image: Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) hauled out on the ice of the Bering Sea, seen during the April 2006 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Walrus Survey. Photo by USFSW/Brad Benter. Used with permission.