Original subtitles

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(Narrator) In stormy Arctic seas,

a mysterious gathering occurs each fall.

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Giants congregate to feed on clouds of minute plankton.

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The ice-choked waters deter all but the bravest sailors.

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And the sea grows more dangerous with

each passing year.

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On land, tiny animals thwart the mighty Arctic winter.

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As the cold weather draws close,

Arctic dogs sense the change in the air,

and grow restless.

(Barking)

Soon they'll race across the ice in teams,

in their natural element.

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This is a voyage of discovery along the

lonely coasts and wild seas of Ninginganiq.

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(Wind blowing)

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On the northeast coast of Baffin Island,

in Canada's Arctic, lies Ninginganiq,

a blustery wilderness where only the intrepid travel.

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Powerful currents drive up to forty icebergs

aground here every day.

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In fall, it can be so dangerous that even

seasoned Inuit sailors keep away.

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But this is when one of Nature's great spectacles

unfolds, rarely witnessed by humans.

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Bowhead whales gather here, at home

in the stormy waters.

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They come to Ninginganiq every year to

feed and socialize.

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Why here rather than similar bays is a mystery.

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The gathering is as extraordinary as it's beautiful.

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North Atlantic bowheads, from eastern Canadian to

Norwegian Arctic waters, are endangered.

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About sixty bowheads are here - More than will

gather anywhere else in this region.

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While other whales migrate between tropical and polar

oceans, bowheads spend their lives in the Arctic,

among sea ice.

This has made them difficult to observe.

Scientists are still making important

discoveries about bowhead whales.

They swim slowly round these frigid seas,

their bodies shielded by fat thicker than any

other animal - up to 20 inches.

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They have massive heads and the largest mouth

of any creature .

It's 10 feet wide and 20 feet deep,

large enough to feed their huge body,

which can be 66 feet long.

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The bowhead's dense, bony skull can break through

two feet of sea ice.

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For all their impressive physical characteristics,

bowhead whales are most intriguing because of

their intelligence and culture of communication.

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(Whale noises)

They sing complex songs, calling fellow travelers,

or seeking to attract a mate with their inventions.

(Whale singing)

Each whale can compose new songs, year after year .

And if one comes up with a hit, it circulates.

(Whale singing)

Bowheads can be miles apart but sing the

same song in harmony.

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Whales may even exceed birds in singing the most

elaborate melodies in the animal world.

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The songs fascinate scientists because of

their eerie similarity to human compositions.

Bowheads are slow-growing and do not mature sexually

until well into their twenties.

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They're the world's longest-lived mammals,

believed to survive for two hundred years.

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(Steam horn)

But tens of thousands from this region alone

never got the chance...

victims of hunting on a genocidal scale.

Their mouths contain baleen - masses of

bristles, for sifting the plankton they eat.

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Whalers from Europe plundered these shafts of

keratin to sell to corset makers

for 19th-century ladies.

They rendered the bowheads' thick blubber

into oil for lamps.

Bowheads were so lucrative to the whaling industry

for hundreds of years that they were hunted

to the brink of extinction.

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The industry collapsed in the northeast Arctic

when there were too few bowheads left for

whalers to profit.

Even though the whaling industry ended a century ago,

the eastern Arctic bowhead population remains devastated.

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Among those that gather in Ninginganiq each fall,

there may be some that survived the bloodshed

of the whaling era.

In recent years, bowheads have been found with

fragments of harpoons still embedded in their flesh.

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Ninginganiq is the world's first sanctuary

where bowheads can swim untroubled.

No cruise ships are allowed to come and watch them.

And no commercial industries are allowed to

disturb them by blasting the seabed in

search of oil or gas.

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This is a place so precious that access is

restricted - even if you can get here.

Inuit are exempt.

Ninginganiq is their traditional hunting ground.

Niore Iqalukjuak is on a pilgrimage.

He helped found the Ninginganiq wildlife sanctuary.

But he's never seen the whales gather in fall.

He's coming with his cousin Joelie Sanguya

to see the bowheads.

The sea ice and weather are against them.

With the dangers of capsizing, being swamped

by frigid waves, or wrecked on ice or rocks,

they travel in two boats to minimize the risk.

The passage is rough and Joelie's dog is seasick.

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Around them the sea ice is shifting and churning.

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It's moving south with the prevailing currents,

but smaller pieces bob in eddies.

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The cousins have roots in Ninginganiq.

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The place has existed in Niore's imagination,

through stories his family tells.

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He hopes to find a boat his grandfather was forced

to abandon there decades ago.

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The boat is the only tangible link

Niorie has left with his grandfather.

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At last, after hours of intense concentration,

Niorie and Jolie arrive safely at the

shores of Ninginganiq.

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They stop at an Inuit cabin for visitors to keep

safe in bad weather, and for hunters to rest.

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From the lookout visitors can observe the

ever-changing condition of the sea ice.

And spot seals, polar bears, and whales.

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(Speaking Inuktitut)

Niore is a wildlife photographer and

environmental activist.

He strives to preserve the Arctic waters from damage

by commercial exploration.

Joelie is a retired school principal and an expert in

the old Inuit skill of dog mushing.

He breeds and trains sled dogs.

He and Niore live 75 miles away.

A world remote from the one most of us know.

But even to them Ninginganig is remote.

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This place is revered in their culture for the

gathering of whales, as this tribute left by a

previous visitor shows.

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Finally, Niore and Joelie can enjoy the spectacle

they've traveled to witness.

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And Niore can capture the sight of the whales

he's fought to protect.

While you're taking pictures everything seems so peaceful.

You're not really thinking of anyone in particular

just the enjoyment of capturing the land or the

wildlife in their own elements.

I enjoy seeing Niore's photography.

Oh, there's a fin; there is it.

One time he was sitting on the edge of the cliff,

and that scared me.

Don't fall.

There's the head. Ah!

More, more, more, more, more, more - two.

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Oh.

The slapping of their tail flukes is called lobtailing.

It's believed to be a show of dominance.

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It's also a precursor to sexual activity.

And it could simply be playful.

As the whales age, their body coloring changes

and their tails develop markings as unique as

a human fingerprint.

Every now and then the whales can be heard.

(Whale sounds)

Sometimes it's a low rumble.

(Whale sounds)

Other times it's a sound like a cannon shot...

(Splashing sound)

A whale slaps its gigantic tail, signaling to others.

(Splashing sound)

Most often it's an explosive hiss of a spout,

the exhalation of expended air and water from the

bowhead's blowhole.

The spouts can fly over 20 feet high.

Niorie wants to take a closer look.

He sees a whale committing to a deep dive.

It's delving into one of the offshore troughs in

the seabed, 600 feet deep,

and rich in plankton.

Plankton is plentiful here at this time of year,

particularly the copepods,

crustaceans that bowheads favor.

Tiny animals feeding one of the biggest.

Copepods are vastly present in the world's oceans.

There are more copepods on the planet than insects.

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The bowheads can feed underwater for forty minutes.

They maintain a rhythmic cycle for hours -

resting, drawing breath, and plunging down.

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Mostly older whales feed here, as evidenced by the

color and markings on their bodies and tails.

When this one resurfaces, it's further from the boat.

It may be because it wants to stay away from humans.

As they age, whales become increasingly wary of humans.

Their experience has taught them that people

usually mean trouble.

At the end of a long day, Niorie and Joelie set up camp.

Back on firm ground, Joelie's dog feels more steady.

Her name is 'Siqiniq' which means 'sun' in Inuktitut.

She's a trusted member of the team that Joelie

takes on hunting trips.

She's also a good alarm for the presence of polar bears.

Siqiniq is a tough work dog bred for long-distance

travel across the sea ice.

Like any expert sledder, Joelie has his own

repertoire of sounds and commands for communicating

with his dogs.

(Joelie makes different sounds/calls)

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There's no freshwater source nearby.

But fragments of icebergs from the sea provide them

with pure water from a glacier thousands of years old

and hundreds of miles away.

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The water in this pond is stagnant, so people can't

drink it and fish can't live in it.

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But, here, a tiny creature thrives that can

combat the Arctic winter.

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Like the giant bowhead whale, the tadpole shrimp

is a filter feeder.

It spends all summer searching for food.

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Each winter, the pond freezes and a generation

of shrimps dies.

But it leaves behind frost-resistant eggs that

lie dormant until the water thaws in spring,

when they hatch.

It survives because its eggs are so durable.

They can weather a drought of twenty years.

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Landmarks left by humans are from whaling.

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This stone ruin, weathered by over a hundred

Arctic winters, was once a whaling watchtower.

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It looked straight out to the seabed troughs,

where the whales feed.

When whales appeared in the bay, the whalers'

flags flew as a call to the kill.

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Whaleboats launched and whales perished

in the onslaught.

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A weathered fragment of whale skull, about 3 feet tall,

may be a whaling relic.

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It fits into a niche at the top of the spine,

connecting it to the huge jawbone.

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Higher up on a hillside lie human remains.

This lonely graveyard is 150 years old.

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Whalers are buried here, far from their homes

in Scotland.

The harsh Arctic winds have scoured the wooden

grave markers so they are no longer legible.

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Whalers lived here, alongside the native Inuit.

The Inuit supplied them with food and clothing and

taught them the ways of the marine mammals,

the sea, and the ice.

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The decaying frames of Inuit sod houses and tents

remain from the last century.

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These are remnants of Inuit dwellings

hundreds of years old.

The stone foundations supported rafters of

whalebone and a roof made of sealskins.

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Whalers lived on their ships and left no homes behind.

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Niore and Joelie are in Ninginganiq in September,

the same time of year as the whalers were here.

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In spring, the whalers were drawn north by the

Baffin Bay current, which determines the movement of

ice on these wild seas.

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The current flows in a counter clockwise direction.

It draws warmer water up from the Atlantic

and thaws ice off Greenland in spring.

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The old whaling ships sailed north as the ice

broke around them.

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They hunted in Northern Baffin Bay for the summer

and then traveled with the current south in the fall.

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In the middle of Baffin Bay is a vast field of floes.

It's so cold that these sheets of ice,

trapped in the current's eddy, never melt.

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Whalers called it the Middle Ice,

and it struck them with terror.

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They dodged it as best as they could.

But many ships were wrecked,

and many whalers perished.

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In the late 1800s, bowheads avoided the

whalers' sailing ships by retreating to the

ice-choked waters of Ninginganiq.

They found sanctuary here - until the whalers

returned in more powerful steamships that

broke through the ice.

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The sea ice is as much a part of Inuit life as the land.

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For thousands of years, the Inuit have navigated

around dangerous floes and icebergs, hunting,

fishing, and traveling in their small, agile boats -

umiaks and kayaks.

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Niore's grandfather, Mosesie, died before they met.

So when Niore learned that Mosesie had left a boat here,

he felt a longing to find it.

But every attempt has been thwarted.

I've tried to go to it three times but had to

turn back because of wind or snow or fog.

And I kept saying, 'It's not the time yet'.

He has felt that no time has been right.

But now, after the hard journeys, the time has come.

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Mosesie's name is still visible on the bow.

Niore can pay his respects.

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A boat is a powerful symbol in his Inuit heritage.

It represents providence, inheritance,

and the struggle for survival.

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Mosesie spent a semi-nomadic life on the land.

He bartered the boat from the Hudson's Bay Company

in exchange for furs.

He had to abandon it here when it was no longer seaworthy.

Getting to it and looking at something that

my mother's father once used was a special moment for me.

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Towards the end of the day, the whales turn and

roll near the surface, flashing flippers and flukes.

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At least two groups move closely against each other.

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This behavior is rarely seen and very special.

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The bowhead whales are sexually frolicking,

not in pairs, but many together, skin to skin,

swirling in contact, polyamorously.

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This is not mating behavior,

which happens in spring.

They're not trying to procreate.

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It could be for social cohesion,

or maybe for pleasure.

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One or two at a time may take a turn, lying with

its white belly up, presenting its sex organs.

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Several others rub against it,

heterosexually and homosexually.

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They move around and over, stroking each other with

their bodies and flippers.

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This has never before been filmed in such detail.

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When bowheads do engage sexually for procreation,

it's around the age of 25.

A female who's ready to be fertilized will engage

a group of males.

Scientists think male bowheads cooperate

to take their turn.

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Unlike many species, it seems that the only sexual

competition between bowheads is at the level

of sperm speeding towards eggs.

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Individual males make no claim for dominance.

We're still learning about this mysterious creature

and for now bowhead whales are keeping many details

of their sex life an Arctic secret.

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While the whales are busy frolicking,

a polar bear swims by.

It's looking for seals to catch and isn't

interested in the bowheads.

Besides, the polar bear can't intimidate the

enormous whales as it can other Arctic animals.

A polar bear dare not attack a bowhead but will

happily eat one that it finds beached on shore.

Inuit in the region are used to harsh weather,

but not as harsh as in 2015.

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Landfast ice, lying on the ocean but attached to land,

wasn't swept away until early September.

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Along the coast in coves and bays, a relentless

wind kept the ice close to shore.

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Abnormally high atmospheric pressure

changed the direction of prevailing winds.

The sea ice didn't disperse as usual and

packed coves and bays.

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Several other factors contributed to abnormal

weather in the area.

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Polar regions are particularly vulnerable

to climate change.

Temperatures here are increasing twice as fast

as in temperate zones.

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In 2015, the effects of climate change were

coupled with El Niño.

This natural but irregular climatic event originates

in the Pacific Ocean and disrupts weather patterns

around the world.

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It can cause droughts in one region and

hurricanes in another.

2015's El Niño was one of the most disruptive on record.

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Between climate change and El Niño, the stormy seas

of Ninginganik became wilder.

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The morning brings new challenges.

The surging storm has raised the tide,

stranding Niore and Joelie from their boats.

(Dog barks)

They left the boats in a sheltered spot,

but are worried the storm has damaged them.

(Dog barks)

At the head of this peninsula the tide now

sweeps across from two directions.

They must wade through the icy water.

The storm has ripped both boats from anchor and

driven them into the rocky shore.

The fiberglass hull of Niore's boat is cracked.

It's no longer seaworthy.

They work hard to salvage what they can.

We had to do a lot of hard decisions then.

We took out the engines and all the electronics stuff

and the steering hoses and everything,

and in order to try and save Joelie's boat,

we used up a lot of rope.

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It should be in the water.

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Niore's boat is wrecked.

But not the memories it holds.

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Lots of memories.

I don't know how many caribou, 2 bowhead hunts,

a whole bunch of narwhal hunts.

All the way from the northern tip of

Baffin Island to

central Baffin it has taken me.

Plus, a whole bunch of friends

who have been on this boat.

You think of them and everything.

She couldn't face the elements, here anyhow.

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The cousins load up Joelie's surviving boat as

soon as they can and head up the coast of Baffin Island,

homeward.

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They've had enough of late fall weather and don't

want to be stranded as winter fast approaches.

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Siqiniq enjoys the trip back as little as

she enjoyed the trip out.

(Whimpers)

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(Dogs barking)

Near Clyde River, Joelie's dogs

anxiously await his return.

(Dogs barking)

Siqiniq reunites with her sled teammates.

(Dogs barking)

They've rested all summer and, as the temperature drops,

they sense winter coming, when they'll be

able to pull the sled again.

This dog gave birth to a litter of puppies a

few weeks ago, here by the river.

(small whimpers)

(small whimpers)

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She trusts Joelie, so doesn't mind him

touching and examining them.

(Dog barks) - Hey, hey.

(Barks)

Most sled-dog runners prefer male teams,

but Joelie thinks females are a better choice.

One male...five females.

Some people prefer to have males as a team.

But some female dogs are more agile.

They can move around, they can twist, they can jump.

Female dogs will run more and faster than a male.

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When these puppies are grown and Joelie trains them,

they can take their place in his sled team.

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At the end of the day, Joelie takes his pack out

for a long run.

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They're creatures of winter.

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Winter is hard but there are Arctic animals,

and humans, who will be in their true element.

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On the coast of Ninginganiq,

Mosesie's boat remains.

And now, his grandson Niore's boat has also

been claimed by the sea.

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The fall reunion of the bowheads has dispersed.

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Early winter waves batter the shores, deterring the

bravest human seafarer.

And the occasional bowhead cruises through,

at home in this wildest of seas.

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