During periods of off-ice winds, the winter Bering Sea ice edge consists of ice bands that measure 1--10 km in length, 0.1--1 km in width, and are oriented at approximately right angles to the wind. The bands are composed of small floes 10--20 m in diameter and 1--5 m in thickness. In March 1981 working from the NOAA ship Surveyor, we mounted two radar transponders 4 km apart on ice flores within such a band and then tracked them for 46 h over an 80 km distance as the band moved into warmer water and melted. Comparison of the band position with that of a satellite-tracked ARGOS station deployed in the ice interior shows that the band moved 30% faster than the interior ice. Analysis of our observations strongly suggest that the cause of the speed increase is the wind-wave radiation stress on the upwind side of the band. We also observed that wind-waves contribute to band ablation by the following mechanism: At the upwind edge, these waves break up the floes into small pieces. Because these pieces are no longer good wave reflectors or absorbers, they drift in the upwind direction away from the band to melt, so that the band width as well as the individual floe thickness decrease with time. In summary, because the bands provide an efficient way for the export and ablation of sea ice, the bands play a major role in the maintenance of the ice edge position.