Celebrating Arctic sea ice with Churchill’s beluga whales
Ocean breezes, happy faces, pale bodies bobbing in the water, and incessant chitter chatter. No, it’s not your local beach – it’s the beluga whale migration in the Churchill River.
Churchill may be famous for its polar bears, but it also offers vibrant wildflowers, diverse birds, and one of the largest annual gatherings of beluga whales in the world. Each summer, tens of thousands of these beautiful ‘canaries of the sea’ travel down from the icy Arctic waters to the (relatively) warmer, shallower offerings of Hudson Bay where they shelter their babies, moult their skin in safety, and eat lots and lots of fish. The Churchill River is a hotspot for these melon-headed families, and Polar Bears International is there every summer with our partner, explore.org, to livestream the sights and sounds of these smile-inducing cetaceans and celebrate their habitat.
They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, so we think the middle of summer is the perfect time to reflect on why protecting sea ice is so critical to the Arctic ecosystem, ourselves, and our planet. That’s why we celebrate Arctic Sea Ice Day each July 15th, the date when Hudson Bay sea ice would historically break up, or melt, for the summer.
This breakup date is getting earlier and earlier, extending the bay’s ice-free period and impacting ice-dependent species like belugas and polar bears.
Many species, and indeed the entire Arctic ecosystem, rely on the presence of sea ice. Sea ice is to the ocean what soil is to a forest. Algae, the primary producers, grow within Arctic sea ice thanks to the channels that form when salt is expelled during the freezing process. These plants then feed the microorganisms like copepods, which feed the fish (e.g., Arctic cod), which support the rest of the food web.
Seals and walruses rely on sea ice as a resting platform and a place to give birth and raise young.
Belugas and other northern whales rely on sea ice for protection and for the food it provides.
Polar bears rely on sea ice as a platform on which to travel, breed, and hunt their main prey – seals. And northern peoples rely on the ice as a means for travel and finding food.
But even beyond the Arctic, sea ice supports life. It acts like Earth’s air conditioner, cooling our entire planet and regulating climate systems around the globe. It reflects sunlight away from water and prevents the heat from being absorbed into the ocean. As we lose sea ice, we reflect less sunlight away and absorb more heat, leading to further warming.
Our world is warming, and the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere. If we did absolutely nothing to change our current path, we would continue to lose sea ice. With no sea ice, we would lose these magnificent creatures and, eventually, our own way of life. But the good news is we know the problem, have the solutions, and are already working toward a future with sea ice.
The problem is that we are burning too many fossil fuels, thus creating emissions that are trapping heat in our atmosphere. In 2025, sea ice conditions have been tracking at or below 2012 levels, the lowest sea ice year on record. Time will tell if this trend continues throughout the rest of the year and what it means in the near term for northern species.
The solution is switching to cleaner energy sources, like solar and wind, which can reduce these emissions, trap less heat in our atmosphere, and eventually get temperatures back to normal. We need (and deserve!) large-scale, affordable, and accessible clean energy options.
On a happy note, research also shows that sea ice is very responsive to atmospheric temperatures, meaning that, when we do get more serious about cleaner energy, sea ice can eventually rebound.
But the extent of that future rebound depends on the actions and decisions we make today. To get more people, especially business leaders and politicians, on board with making good decisions for our future, we must inspire them to act. What better inspiration than a river full of chirping belugas?
So please join our team and special guests this summer as we live stream from our boat, the Sea Canary, on the Churchill River, while the happiest whales we know navigate and narrate their watery world.
If you want to further support Arctic conservation, please check out Polar Bears International’s Arctic Sea Ice Day Toolkit and our new Keep It Cool campaign, helping to spread the word about why keeping the Arctic cold is cool for all creatures. And don’t forget to share the explore.org Beluga Cams with friends, family, and colleagues (and keep that volume turned up!)
Read other articles by Alysa McCall:
Living Safely with Polar Bears
Reasons to Be Hopeful this International Polar Bear Day: a Future for Children and Cubs
The Belugas Have Arrived! Tune Into Their Migration on Arctic Sea Ice Day
Thank you Alysa, and everyone at PBI, and alll those helping to save the Polar Bears. As go the Polar Bears, so go us.
Best,
Greg
🙏🏻🐾