in this part of the world sightings of
orcas or killer whales are extremely
rare
that's because under regular
circumstances they simply can't get here
for most of the year this water is
frozen the entrance to this Bay is
usually blocked by heavy pack ice and
with their large dorsal fins orcas can't
get through
this is a clip sound a natural waterway
in the Inuit owned territories of the
Canadian Arctic far away from any major
human settlement it's home to iconic
Arctic species like bowhead whales
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narwhals arctic seals and of course the
polar bear but there's a major shift
going on
mildrith the moderator delegate there
are more killer whales hello I can the
past we would see them maybe once in a
so now we see many more than that there
is no question that the climate crisis
is changing the face of the Arctic as we
know it in August 2000 nineteen Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau
visited Canada's far north to witness
the dramatic effects of climate change
in the region his administration
declared the fight to protect the Arctic
ecosystem a number-one priority but it's
a fight against time historically sea
ice grows and shrinks with the seasons
covering the entire region from the
North Pole to the Hudson Bay with ice
and while the amount of permanent ice is
retreating the seasonal extension is
also experiencing a downward trend this
seasonal ice plays a big role in shaping
local ecosystems shutting off the region
from the rest of the world for much of
the year this brings us to the question
why is being locked into vast amounts of
ice so vital to many local species
killer whales are a so-called
cosmopolitan species meaning that their
range extends to appropriate habitats
across the entire planet they're
classified into different groups
inhabiting the northern and the southern
hemisphere
they have been extensively studied at
different points in the world's oceans
it's well known that they are great
hunters developing key strategies
adapted to specific prey to feed on
herring in the North Atlantic
they confusing disabled swarms of fish
using a range of high pitched sounds
stunning individuals so they can simply
snap them up after Zealand's coasts they
deliberately knock out stingrays with
amazing precision to avoid being stung
by their prey before enjoying their meal
in Patagonia they charge straight at the
beach
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capturing ambushed seals on the shore
killer whales are undisputedly
the dominant predator wherever they go
in the Canadian Arctic
killer whales were recorded as open
water season visitors as early as the
mid-1800s by local hunters and European
pioneers but the species humans
witnessed most year-round is the narwhal
Narwhal spend most of their lives
underwater and the entire winter locked
in ice known as unicorns of the sea they
have a single tusk that can reach up to
3 meters essentially it's an inside-out
tooth directly connected to the brain
and incredibly sensitive on the outside
until recently
narwhals lived in peace here without
having to worry about ocean predators
but now this is changing we know they
eat seals and and as their predators
like us they can probably eat anything
they can get their hands on in order to
scientifically substantiate the
observations made by local hunters
scientists started tracking orcas coming
in during the summer months
they had to attach satellite tags to the
whales to be able to follow their
movements
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very little is known about killer whales
in the Arctic and there are a few key
questions that we hope to answer with
our work in particular where killer
whales are coming from and what they're
feeding upon so what I'm really
interested in determining is whether
killer whales are are coming in and
focusing exclusively on one prey type or
if they're preying on a wider variety of
prey type the satellite trackers showed
that the tagged killer whales stuck
together and moved on as a larger group
they traveled fast with very direct
movements seemingly knowing the region
and where they were going it turned out
they were moving north
leaving a clip sound meanwhile a large
group of local narwhals gathered
together in a bay to the west for the
late summer months
this secluded Bay served as a safe
summer nursery to bring up their young
for in just a couple of months earlier
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the narwhal group didn't seem to be
aware of the unexpected threat
approaching the satellite data showed
that the killer whales were heading
directly towards the Bay where the
narwhals were trapping them in with no
way out under normal circumstances
killer whales wouldn't travel that far
to the west at that time of year risking
getting trapped by the encroaching
winter ice but they seized the
opportunity and with a never-before-seen
hunting method surrounded the narwhals
to push them close to the shore there
they charged that they're trapped prey
leaving them no chance of escape
the group of killer whales were able to
feast on their victims tearing apart the
entire narwhal nursing ground
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in the community
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there was enough for them to feed the
entire group including their young with
plenty of proteins and fat to store up
for the next winter when they will have
less food available well entirely what
we expected to see these changes
occurring from the top down that killer
whales could be this dominant a predator
that could actually result in in the
death of a lot of whales from southern
populations you know this may be how the
distribution will change how Narwhal and
beluga will end up even further towards
the poles they are not necessarily going
to move there it just that the ones in
the south might be suffering predation
by killer whales that at the rates that
they cannot maintain as a population
today it's clear that the Arctic
ecosystem is changing yet the people
affected have different opinions on what
to expect from these changes local
hunters might even spot a benefit we
like hunting normal and killer whales
herd them closer to the show for us
which makes hunting easier and we got a
little bigger only reward again we
appreciate having to kill around to help
us yeah while on the other hand most
scientists see it differently focusing
on the long-term challenges as opposed
to short lived benefits this is a big
problem for the Inuit I mean they rely
on ice adapted whales and seals their
food their cultural subsistence hunts
and it's just it's important to them
they're not necessarily going to be able
to learn to use the new species but
could be a real change of life for them
but it's it's something to watch into
the future as the changes unfold we can
get an idea of what might be happening
but we're probably gonna be surprised
there's gonna be some more things that
we didn't anticipate will happen there
are very few places left on earth where
we can see such profound changes as
we're currently witnessing in the Arctic
the future of this icy world
now hangs in the balance hey there i'm
philip video producer here to author
i hope you enjoyed the short dog it
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