Original subtitles

GORDON PINSENT: Last time on The Polar Sea...

The great melt draws tourists and journalists to the Arctic...

(ULLA SPEAKING GERMAN)

(CAMERA CLICKS)

PINSENT: ...where they find life very different from what they had imagined.

Culture is becoming a valuable commodity here.

And art, a key to survival,

as climate change makes it harder for families to get food.

But for Northwest Passage sailors,

the warming Arctic is still punishing on people and equipment.

MARTIN SIGGE: A little welding job brings me to shore.

PINSENT: As DAX goes deep into the Passage,

the long journey is pushing the little boat to its limit.

(SEAGULLS CAWING)

DAX sails northwest into Lancaster Sound.

It is bound for Resolute Bay,

600 kilometers away through uninhabited wilderness.

RICHARD TEGNER: We stayed a couple of days in Pond Inlet

before we continued our trip.

(RICHARD SPEAKING IN SWEDISH)

(GRUNTING)

PINSENT: They're in the kingdom of the polar bear.

Every year, local travelers report

more of the great predators wandering these shores.

Few people walk here without a gun.

(SPEAKING IN SWEDISH)

PINSENT: Cape Hatt is at the mouth of Lancaster Sound,

first of the channels that form

the Northwest Passage to the Pacific.

It is also where blue water appears first

as the sea ice melts inward from the ocean coasts.

But even in August, in the era of global warming,

most of the passage is still solid ice.

DAX bides its time in Cape Hatt.

Just ahead, off Devon Island,

the Swiss yacht, Libellule, also rides at anchor.

(SQUAWKING)

(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

PINSENT: The family of Philipp Cottier,

and their two-man crew can do nothing but play,

always with someone on bear watch.

(GUN CLICKS) (SPEAKING IN FRENCH)

(SHOT FIRED) (PHILIPP LAUGHING)

(SPEAKING IN FRENCH)

(MARIELLE DONZE SPEAKING IN FRENCH)

(SPEAKING IN FRENCH)

(MARIELLE LAUGHING)

RICHARD: When we entered the shore,

there were, uh, signs

saying that this is a scientific research area

that is supposed to study the impact

of crude oil on the shores. (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)

They intentionally poured out crude oil on the beach

and on the ice to study the way it behaved,

traveling through the ice and the sand.

(SPEAKING IN SWEDISH)

(SNIFFING)

(SPEAKING IN SWEDISH)

Further inland we found something

that must have been a research station,

but it was totally smashed.

It was refrigerators, gas tubes,

and building parts, toilets, a stove,

but all smashed, and just left like that.

Then the studies were over, and they...

They offered the community of Pond Inlet

to buy the station, the camp for one dollar.

And they...

So they get rid of the problem to take care of it,

and nobody took care of it.

PINSENT: The story is not unusual.

Scientists have always been drawn to the Arctic

but support for their work here has never been strong,

and it's usually pursued in the service of some other goal.

RICHARD: Amundsen's raised funds for his trip.

He makes the scientists

pay him for finding the Magnetic North Pole.

But, of course, he wanted the adventure

but that was a way to finance it.

PINSENT: British Navy captains were ordered not to delay

their missions with scientific exploration.

But still, every ship returned with plants and curios

that were as strange to Victorian England

as trinkets from another planet.

Even 20th century expeditions rarely took science seriously.

They often collected animals just as trophies.

And their encounters with Inuit provided mutual amusement,

but little exchange of knowledge.

(SINGING IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

(ENGINE WHIRRING)

PINSENT: Today, climate change has brought a huge increase

in scientific attention to the region.

Global warming is advancing faster

at the Poles than anywhere else.

Researchers from all over the world

are now rushing to learn its biological impacts.

Changes in the politics of this region have transformed

how science is now done and why.

In 1999, the High Arctic region

was declared the territory of Nunavut.

One of the most important gains for Inuit,

was control of wildlife resources.

Arctic science now requires the permission of Inuit communities.

And often, they are employing the scientists.

Juelie Kuksiak and Stephen Atkinson

are scouring the Baffin coast in search of bears.

(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)

Juelie is a hunter,

and his community wants to hang onto

its ancient practice of hunting the bears.

He believes there are plenty of bears

but Western Public Opinion wants the bears protected.

STEPHEN ATKINSON: One of the key questions is, how many polar bears

can be harvested without causing a decline in the population.

Instead of actually catching the polar bears,

we're just sampling a small piece of skin from each bear

using a biopsy dart.

It's a dart about the size,

the length of a pencil, little bit thicker.

Uh, it's fired from a dart gun from, from the helicopter.

And it, it just sort of takes a small punch of skin from each bear

and the dart bounces off the bear, falls to the ground.

The bear is then able to walk away.

When it's walked away, we can land, pick up the dart,

and our little piece of skin is there.

PINSENT: Darting bears from a helicopter requires deft flying.

When they spot bears, Juelie is let off

to make the chopper lighter for maneuvers.

And once on the ground,

Juelie goes from predator to prey.

(GRUNTING) (HELICOPTER WHIRRING)

(GUNSHOT)

(JUELIE KUKSIAK SPEAKING IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

PINSENT: Inuit want to preserve the polar bear hunt.

Not for themselves, but for Southern sports hunters.

Sport hunting of polar bears

can bring $50,000 to a community.

It can bring in three times as much money as eco-tourism.

STEPHEN: I can certainly understand,

um, the perspective of people who live in the Arctic

who see polar bears on an everyday basis

and they may see more polar bears

than they've ever done in the past

and obviously, that's going to make people, uh,

come to the conclusion that there are more polar bears,

and maybe, that's the case.

On the other hand, there are certainly...

Some scientists have suggested

that people are seeing more bears

because the bears have changed their behavior

or their distribution has changed

because the ice is forming and melting in a different way.

And again, I don't have the answers

as to which of those explanations is correct.

Uh, what we are trying to do here is to...

...is to try get some of those answers.

PINSENT: These kinds of questions extend

from the largest Arctic creatures to the smallest.

(SQUAWKING)

Millions of birds migrate to the Arctic,

to feed and breed every summer.

Some travel tens of thousands of kilometers to get here.

One of their main landing spots

are the cliffs of Bylot Island,

just off the Baffin coast.

Scientists think they are drawn here

because the summer Arctic is rich in insects.

Now, the numbers of migratory birds in the Arctic are crashing,

and no one knows exactly why.

(SQUAWKING)

Researchers think climate change has thrown off the schedules

that link emerging insects and arriving birds,

leaving the birds starving. (CHITTERING)

Laval University in Quebec has established a camp here

to study the island's biology.

(METER BEEPING)

(CLICKING)

(FANNY SENEZ-GAGNON SPEAKING IN FRENCH)

(SPEAKING IN FRENCH)

(CHITTERING)

PINSENT: Just offshore in Lancaster Sound,

researchers monitoring the whale population have the same problem.

We know so little about these most elusive beasts.

Francine Mercier works for Parks Canada.

She is here trying to capture the song of the narwhal

as part of a wildlife inventory of Lancaster Sound.

FRANCINE MERCIER: Surprisingly, narwhal are still one of

the mysterious species,

um, because they're so remote.

We know that they feed on fish

and various other small species and...

We know that they seem to use their tusks to fight a bit

but we're not sure if that's the actual purpose.

Maybe they're playing.

Uh, it's just...

An odd species that we really don't know that much about.

They need to be understood

so that we can protect them better in the future

when things change, because with climate change,

goodness knows what's going to happen.

(BUBBLING)

(WHIRRING)

(ELECTRONIC BEEP)

(BUZZING)

(BEEPING)

PINSENT: Francine's job is to establish marine areas

that are protected from development.

As the Arctic ice melts,

the pressure is growing here

for mineral and oil exploration.

(BIRDS SQUAWKING)

FRANCINE: Lancaster Sound is really the jewel of the Arctic.

The number of bird species...

Seventy, 75% of the world's narwhal population down here.

Twenty percent of Canada's polar bears are in this area as well.

So, it's just unbelievable.

PINSENT: That beauty is not lost on the crew of DAX.

To see the bounty of the tundra,

they are learning to look closely.

(GRUNTS)

RICHARD: Blueberries.

(ENGINE SPUTTERING)

PINSENT: As his small crew explores,

Captain Martin Sigge works to make sure

DAX is up for a long leg of the journey

where there will be no possibility of help.

MARTIN: (SIGHING) Very black.

That's suction.

Watch man make sacrifice, suck oil.

It's nice and warm, too.

This takes...

This is like chewing gum if the engine is cold,

if you have cheap oil, which we have.

What, already?

(MARTIN SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

# The sun it shines on Baffin Bay

# There goes Upernavik

# Our jib is filled with the northern wind

# We're greeting Canada

# The sun it shines on Baffin Bay

# My turn is over now

# Our course is straight on westward ho!

# Say hello to Canada

# A smell of salt in Baffin Bay

# A wind, with touch of ice

# Our lines are loose, haul straight, you fool!

# The goal is Bylot Sound

# The sun it shines on Baffin Bay

# My turn is over now

# Our course is straight on westward ho!

# Say hello to Canada #

MARTIN: It was a holiday yesterday

and, um, the Inuit have to return

to their old home site.

And we talked a little to them,

they were fishing, putting up some nets from the shore.

That was, uh, very nice.

PINSENT: All Inuit live in modern villages now,

but every summer they move back

to hunting spots that have been known for countless generations.

(DOG BARKS)

Natasha Mablick and her extended family

have come to the mouth of Lancaster Sound to hunt the narwhal,

that migrate through every summer.

NATASHA MABLICK: I think that everyone should experience

what it's like out here,

because it's amazing.

And for our children to take part in hunting and camping

so that the root is planted and...

When they become older, they'll be the ones

conducting a hunting camp, or they'll be the ones

teaching their kids the way we have taught them.

(HUMMING)

NATASHA: Of course there will be differences,

like, there's not a lot of similarities now, I think,

from the way my ancestors have hunted narwhal.

We don't get in the kayak

and chase the narwhal or get as close to them.

We've taken a lot of their skills

and have modified them,

to the kind of tools and supplies we have today.

(CAWING)

And I think we should continue to pass on this great knowledge,

so that the tradition lives.

(MICHAEL KUSUGAK SPEAKING IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

PINSENT: Inuit storyteller,

Michael Kusugak lives in the south now,

but returns for Arctic summers, to reconnect.

MICHAEL: One of our greatest philosophies, I think,

is to help and encourage others,

um, and especially, the children, you know...

One thing I've noticed here,

since we've been here is that...

You know, all these young people go out and help do everything,

even little kids, all the way up to the big ones,

they're always helping, you know.

And I think that's, uh, the most wonderful thing.

You know, we've got a lot of this, um, ice,

and when it comes to shore, they pull it up

and they carry it, you know, to the barrel,

back there to make water.

(SPEAKING IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

(SPEAKING IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

(LAUGHS)

MICHAEL: We have, uh...

I think a very, very special word in Inuktitut.

(SPEAKING IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

It's a feeling that we have for a place like this.

Like, when you look out,

everywhere, all around,

it gives you this sense of peace.

PINSENT: These days, the hunters are often

followed by visiting scientists.

(BIRDS TRILLING)

Sandie Black is a research veterinarian.

Padraig Duignan is a pathologist.

They want to know if warming weather

will expose narwhals to new diseases.

SANDIE BLACK: I think the more I've worked with narwhal,

the more questions I have about their future

and wanting that to be...

Actually, don't do that one.

And so, if we're able to be successful

getting the samples we're after,

that puts us a long way further

to answering some of those questions,

and also helping out a number of other researchers.

Uh, every...

You know, every animal we get to handle is quite a privilege

and so to make the most use of that,

um, it's very worth it to be here and then we just,

do as much as we can with the opportunity.

If you just lift from the middle.

PINSENT: The first whale

the hunters land has been dead for a while

and is not fit for eating.

(SANDIE SPEAKING)

(MAN SPEAKING)

SANDIE: We were looking to work with hunters

and pay 100 dollars for a fresh whale.

Like, can we give you 50 dollars to look at this whale?

(MUMBLING) Is that okay?

SANDIE: Because they sit as an apex fish-eating predator,

if there are major changes in the ecosystem,

I think that we will see major changes

in the health of narwhal populations.

They seem to be quite noise sensitive, in terms of shipping

and, you know, we're expecting

not even ten but probably, a hundred-fold changes

in the amount of traffic coming though the Arctic.

And what that amount of sound coming through these waterways

will do to the narwhal, we don't know.

So, there is lots and lots of changes happening

and we're sort of racing to find out

how much impact there are

and what can be done to mitigate impacts if they're there.

Uh, it was found a couple of kilometers up the coast

and we think it was shot but not collected.

We're doing, essentially, a necropsy exam on this whale.

Just looking in general for overall health.

So things we might look for are parasites in the lungs,

parasites in his guts,

um, just the overall state of his organs.

Anything that might help us determine

how healthy this individual was.

(SQUAWKING)

So we think it's been dead for five to seven days.

Uh, there's lots of fulmar marks on the skin

where the birds have been feeding on this carcass

and, so now, we've had a quick look at the outside,

but we're going to have a look at the inside.

And we can look at the density,

in fact, we can see it now, the thickness of his blubber.

So, um, everything...

He's a little bit bloated, but everything else indicates

this animal was in really good body condition when he died.

So he's doing pretty well.

(BONES CRUNCHING)

The heart.

(SQUAWKING)

Can you come here? Yeah.

So, it spins around and it separates out...

(CLANGS)

...the liquid portion from the cells.

Well, that's not bad at all!

The ecosystem up here if you think about comparing it to the south

and the complexity of number of species, plant and animal,

it's much simpler up here,

but that doesn't really mean it's less complex,

and in fact, it may mean there is less resilience in the system.

Um, should one thing go,

the cascade affect may be fairly dramatic and rapid.

MICHAEL: A long time ago, there was a little boy.

And he lived way off somewhere with his mother

and his little sister and their old dog.

Now, his mother was a terrible, terrible woman.

And she would hardly feed him

and treat him terribly and...

PINSENT: The children of the camp are equally fascinated

by the different cultures' ways of understanding

the essence of narwhal.

MICHAEL: He got to be a really, really good hunter.

He would go out hunting

and he would feed his mother and sister

but they ate all the best food, his sister and him.

And one day, the mother said,

"Why do you not treat me very well?

"Why don't you feed me very well?"

And the boy said,

"Well, my sister and I, we go hunting."

And the mother said, "Well, I can go hunting, too."

And they walked down to the beach,

and the boy took the harpoon line

and tied it around his mother's middle

and the other end, he attached to the harpoon.

His mother said, "That one! That gray one!

"Harpoon that gray one!"

And he lifted his harpoon and he threw it.

And as soon as the harpoon got into the whale,

the whale took off.

And when the rope around her middle was tight,

you know, the mother started running down the beach

and the whale went down into the water,

and the mother went down into the water, you know, with the whale.

And then, they disappeared for a long time,

and way out, after a while the whale appeared again,

and behind her, you know, behind the white whale,

his mother came up again.

And when she came up,

she was saying, "What have you done?

"What have you done?

"I fed you when you were a baby.

"I took care of you! What have you done?"

And way, way off in the distance,

he could see the white whale come up

and behind the white whale, this, uh, narwhal,

you know, with the big tusk came up.

And it was the mother, her braids, you know.

All her braids had turned into a big tusk.

And they say, you can still hear that whale,

"What have you done? What have you done?"

(GUNSHOT)

Oh!

(SCATTERED APPLAUSE)

SANDIE: In the moment, I'm pulling for the narwhal.

You know, the...

These samples that we want to collect are very important,

but in the moment, I'm...

Yeah, my heart goes out to the whales.

(GASPS)

(SPEAKING IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

(KIDS CHUCKLING)

(INDISTINCT TALKING)

(INDISTINCT)

NATASHA: Marine mammals are a major part of our diets.

Seals and narwhals are two of the biggest mammals of our diets.

I grew up eating seal since I was a child,

and there's times where, like, my body almost needs it.

PINSENT: Whale skin and blubber, called muktuk,

provides the only vitamin C and D

for people in a land with little fruit and no vegetables.

(SPEAKING IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

(NATASHA LAUGHING) MAN: What do you do with all of this?

NATASHA: Birds.

PINSENT: The Inuit only eat the muktuk.

The meat once went to their dog teams.

Now, it goes to the seagulls.

The tusk will sell for about $2,000 in the village co-op.

It will be resold by a southern dealer for $10,000.

A handful of countries ban narwhal tusks.

But Inuit are passionate about their right to profit from hunting.

NATASHA: There was a ban on narwhal tusk.

And I think Inuit should continue to do what they do

because we're only selling a little portion of it.

We still use seal skin mitts and seal skin boots.

For Inuit who hunt all year round and don't have jobs,

selling narwhal tusk and seal pelts

could be how they were getting their gas

and their store-bought food to continue to go out hunting

and even to buy bullets and things.

(SPEAKING IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE)

(BIRDS SQUAWKING)

PINSENT: For people who live in the Arctic,

the Northwest Passage is a river that flows by,

bringing food and sometimes, strangers.

For Arctic sailors, it can be an obstacle course or a highway,

depending on the ice conditions.

As the ice in Lancaster Sound melts,

the crew of Libellule prepare to sail westward

and deeper into adventure.

(PHILIPP SPEAKING IN GERMAN)

(SLOW MUSIC PLAYING)

PINSENT: Moored on the coast behind, DAX is not going forward.

(ENGINE RUNNING)

RICHARD: One morning, as usual, Martin woke up

a little bit before the rest of us

and he was panting, you know, and moving around

diving into the engine room and...

I saw these problems coming and going all the time,

but I felt now, there is something really bad, worse than ever

because he didn't express any nice feelings.

He was moving violently and he's slamming the doors

and diving into the engine room and...

Well, "What will come now?" I thought.

And after we had had lunch, no, uh, breakfast,

he said, uh...

"I can't stand this no more. It's too much.

"I'm sick and tired of it. I want to go home."

(ENGINE REVVING)