Whales are already exploiting the increasing areas of open water that melting sea ice has made available in the Arctic, and animals previously presumed to be separated into distinct Atlantic and Pacific populations may now be mixing.
Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources in Nuuk and his colleagues tracked two adult bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) with satellite tags in 2010 (tagging process pictured). One was from the Bering–Chukchi–Beaufort population, from the western side of North America; the other was part of the Baffin Bay–Davis Strait group, from the eastern side.
During September, the animals spent ten days within 130 kilometres of each other and crossed paths. This adds to evidence that bowheads and other animals may already be using the Northwest Passage to travel between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
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Bowheads mingle in Northwest Passage. Nature 477, 512 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/477512a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/477512a
