With the level of Arctic Sea ice having hit its lowest point late last week, scientists at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre have expressed concerns that the receding sea ice level has chased thousands of huge walruses to Alaska Coast.

Revealing that, in summer this year, global warming led to the melting of Arctic Sea ice to its second lowest level of merely 1.67 million square miles in five decades, scientists pointed to an unprecedented migration of walruses from the ice to the coast.

According to the scientists, the sea ice is the place where the walruses often rest, and their chase to the coast is apparently a transitory move as they wait for the ice to creep back south. However, the congregation of these behemoths at the coast may result in fatal stampedes.

Elaborating on the migration of the walruses, Chad Jay - the United States Geological Survey (USGS)'s program lead for walrus research - said that with the last bits of sea ice vanishing in early August, the walruses started moving in different directions in search of a place to haul out, either on sea ice or land --- and, they finally came out on the beach, near Point Lay.

Noting that one aerial survey has estimated that more than 20,000 walruses had congregated at the coast, Jay said that, as a result of the receding Arctic Sea ice, the walruses "would find themselves over the deep water and unable to forage effectively."