Inuit Hunters Use Castaway-CTD to Gather Data Under Hudson Bay Ice

The hunters recognized the changes. A shot seal would usually float, buoyed by its blubber atop the dense saltwater of Canada’s Hudson Bay. Now the seals were sinking below the surface before the hunters could reach them. Polynyas, the open patches of sea surrounded by ice, were freezing over with brittle, clear ice, often with little warning. Beluga whales were being trapped beneath the floes, cut off from their surfacing holes. Arctic eiders, the diving ducks whose down is a source of warmth and commerce for the Inuit, were trapped on the ice, dying like flies.