For the Eastern Fraim Strait, the Southeast Barents Sea, and North Iceland, there was
considerably less sea ice coverage (as assessed in months - per - year) during the late 1600s to early 1700s than there has been during the last few decades.
If polar bears have been around for few hundred thousand years they have experienced a variety of environmental changes in the Arctic, including periods when there was more
sea ice than present as well as periods when seasonal
sea ice was
considerably less than at present.