Microscopic organisms (plankton and algae) thrive in the Arctic despite the cold temperatures and support a large marine food web. At the top of the food web are the toothed whales, dolphins, and pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses). These marine mammals are not only impacted by climate change (which alters their migration patterns) but are also threatened by increased shipping traffic and risk of disease.
You may be surprised to learn that habitats like coral reefs and kelp forests are also found in the Arctic! These areas act as nurseries for commercial fish stocks like cod and pollock. The longest living vertebrate can be found in these frigid waters (the Greenland shark, at over 500 years old). Crabs, urchins, and other invertebrates scuttle across the dark sea floor, while some of the largest colonies of seabirds on the planet can be found soaring above the waves.
The Arctic has the largest continental shelf of any sea on Earth, which also makes it the shallowest ocean. This means it is the least salty too, due to a large inflow of freshwater from the Greenland ice sheet. This freshwater contributes to global sea level rise, but it also changes the density of sea water, and may start to disrupt important ocean currents.
This inflow of freshwater from calving glaciers and large river deltas, combined with circulating ocean currents, make the waters of the Arctic seas rich in nutrients.
Bowhead Whales
Bowhead whales, or Balaena mysticetus, belong to a group of whales that have “baleen” instead of teeth, which help them collect krill and other food by filtering seawater through their enormous mouths. Arctic Peoples have hunted bowhead whales on a subsistence basis for centuries, but populations were decimated when commercial whaling began in the 16th century.
After being hunted to near extinction the bowhead received some protections in the early 1900s. Since then, some populations have made a comeback (Spitsbergen and Svalbard-Barents Sea) and seem to be benefitting from the changes in water temperature brought on by climate change. However, other populations (Eastern Canada-West Greenland) are not recovering, and all populations are facing new threats.
Predation by Orcas (also known as killer whales) is frequent and increasing in some areas. Bowhead whales are also extremely sensitive to acoustic disturbances coming from ship traffic, military activities, and oil exploration/extraction offshore. This is because these whales are highly vocal and communicate over long distances. Their songs have even been described as “bird-like” in complexity!
Bowhead whales are the only whale that remains in the Arctic year-round, but they still migrate within the region. Climate change has caused a shift in these seasonal migrations, altering when whales move and where they decide to go. These changes in migration patterns put fewer whales in reach of Arctic Peoples that rely on them for their nutrition and culture.
Oral Histories
Oral Histories of Bowhead Whale from Greenland
“The hunters have a lot of experience with how the animals behave. They do things their own way and are the best at it. Among other things, they have developed a better and more efficient technique for tagging humpback whales”
Pinngortitaleriffik
Indigenous Observations of Bowhead Whale from Chukotka, Russia
“Everything is connected: animals, birds, fish and people. Everyone feels this connection differently. A lot depends on who or what found your body and “came” to become you. But a lot also depends on the way you are now.”
“I think that God, or whoever he is up there, made the bowhead whale especially for us. We would not have survived without it in the old days. It gives us housing, food for us and for our dogs, and warmth for the people. Besides, whales are fun to watch, and useful too. One has to watch whales to learn to be a good person and a good hunter. Whales teach us the peace and beauty of life.”
Nikolay Galgawyi
“Marine mammal hunters have never tried to hide from the sea. They built their settlements not in calm bays or coves, but out on current-churning capes where winds and sea currents keep the sea clear of ice even in the dead of winter and where whales and walruses come close to the shore. A hunter is always on the prowl. Even if he is simply walking down the beach, he watches the sea, and he notices everything. He always wants to be facing the sea.”
Lyudmila Ainana
“Traditional knowledge is important for ourselves. These days, we have but bits and pieces of it. In the past, Elders observed the animals to learn. Young people now watch the animals ‘tactically” – just to kill.”
Albert Ashamakin
“A hunter’s knowledge is not only about how to kill the animal, but also how to protect it, how to respect it so that it returns next year. When you learn more, you develop a feeling for the sea and for everything living. Because you understand you are one of them.”
Petr Tepegkaq
Nunavut oral histories
Bennett, J, Rowley, S. 2004. Uqalurait: An Oral History of Nunavut. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press
Macdonald, J. 2004. SILAGA NAUK? – Where is my Weather? in a book Mustonen, T., Helander, E. 2004. Snowscapes, Dreamscapes. Tampere: University of Applied Sciences Tampere and Snowchange
Reeves, R., Lee, D. 2022. Bowhead Whales and Whaling in the Central and Eastern Canadian Arctic, 1970-2011. J. Cetacean. Res. Mange. 23, 2022
Chukotka oral histories
Ainana, L. et al. 2000. Preservation and Development of the Subsistence Lifestyle and Traditional Use of Natural Resources by Native People (Eskimo and Chukchi) in Selected Coastal Communities (Inchoun, Uelen, Lorino, Lavrentya, Novoye Chaplino, Sireniki, Nunligran, Enmelen) of Chukotka in the Russian Far East During 1998. Unpublished Report submitted to the Shared Beringia Heritage Programme, US National Park Service, Alaska, USA
Bogoslovskaya, I. et al. 2016. Maritime Hunting Culture of Chukotka: Traditions and Modern Practices. Anchorage: National Park Service
Melnikov, V, Zdor, E. 2018. Observations of bowhead whales along the Northern Chukotka
peninsula 2010–2012 with comparisons to 1994–1996 and 2002–2005. J. CETACEAN RES. MANAGE. 18: 81–91, 2018
Zdor, E. 2021. Subsistence Whaling of the Chukotkan Indigenous Peoples. SENRI ETHNOLOGICAL STUDIES 104: 75 – 92. World Whaling: Historical and Contemporary Studies
Zelensky, M et al. 1997. The Role of the Naukan Native Company in Encouraging Subsistence Use of Wildlife Resources by the Chukotka Native People and in Conducting Shore-based Observations of the distribution of bowhead whale, Balaena Mysticetus, in the Waters of the Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea Adjacent to the Chukotka Peninsula (Russia) During 1996. Unpublished Report submitted to the Department of Wildlife Management, North Slope Borough, Alaska, USA