Beluga migration livestreamed

July 19, 2020

Launched on Wednesday by Polar Bear International and Explore.org, the live steam cam allows us to follow the gentle cetaceans on their journey from the cold Arctic waters to the warmer waters of Canada’s Churchill River estuary in the Hudson Bay as the sea ice recedes. Here, thousands will molt, feed, rest, and give birth in the shallow waters.

It’s thought around 57,000 belugas make this migratory journey every year between July and August. In winter, when there’s lots of sea ice, the whales congregate in the north of Hudson Bay, but when the ice begins to melt the belugas migrate southwest to the many warmer water estuaries at the mouth of the Churchill River.

This is the seventh year the livecam has been streamed, created to call attention to the melting Arctic ice. It's well known the Arctic is melting twice as fast as the rest of the planet, what is not yet known is how this will affect animals like belugas, as the seasons change and the sea ice extent decreases.

In the coming weeks, you should be able to see them swimming, eating, playing, and nursing their young. Belugacam is streaming until the start of September.