Ice Whale

The Icewhale

‘Icewhale’ is the popular name for the Greenland whale or Bowhead whale Balaena mysticetus. Just starting to recover from centuries of industrial whaling, this second largest animal of the planet now faces melting of its habitat and interference with new Arctic shipping lanes.
Why do Icewhales stay close to the sea-ice on the Northern Hemisphere? Why do they sing their songs 24/7 throughout the polar night in the Fram Strait? What threat does Arctic melting and subsequent exploration and shipping hold for the Icewhale and its environment?  Otherwise, as current research suggests, could restoration of the Icewhale population help fight climate change, thus preserving their own Arctic habitat?
Such questions are paramount for the entire Arctic ecosystem. Answers can only be provided with a dedicated series of research expeditions.

About the Icewhale

Polar Winter Expeditions

The Icewhale Foundation (IWF), based in The Netherlands, has initiated the realisation of the Icewhale Research Expeditions. For the first time ever, these expeditions will study the magnificent Icewhale during the dark Arctic winter in its natural habitat in the Fram Strait between Spitsbergen and Greenland.
Expeditions consist of a four to five month drift in the marginal ice-zone with a specially built innovative ship. The six crewmembers – icenauts – navigate the ship and perform research as if they were astronauts on a spaceship. Real-time satellite coverage, associated media programming and a continually operating ground station connect the general public to the expeditions, creating unparalleled Arctic ecosystem awareness. Together with international outreach, including scientific, political and private sector, the Icewhale Research Expeditions have the powerful potential to mitigate the consequences of Arctic warming in the broadest possible sense in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

More information

Icewhale Foundation

The first aim of the Icewhale Foundation is to gather knowledge of the population dynamics and reproduction of the Icewhale and the associated impact of climate change and increasing transarctic shipping and exploration. The potential counter- vailing measure of a dynamic Marine Protected Area in the Arcticmarginal ice zone urgently needs to be assessed. The secondary aim is to involve the public at large in the Icewhale Research Expeditions, with the ultimate goal to engage people in the challenges posed by the warming of the Arctic. The scientific and sustainable objectives of the expeditions in combination with large media attention and the direct involvement of the public constitute the sound and rational basis for private-public funding of the Icewhale Research Expeditions.

CONTACT: info@icewhale.nl

More about the Icewhale Foundation

BLANK SPOT ON THE MAP

There are still blank areas on the map of the earth. Such a blank area is the white Arctic sea-ice between Greenland and Spitsbergen. This is the remote area in which one of the most intriguing wildlife species of the world lives: the Bowhead Whale or Greenland Right Whale, Balaena mysticetus. We call it the Icewhale because it is not Greenland but the sea-ice that defines its distinctive character. Now that the Arctic ice is melting, the Icewhale not only faces the reduction of its critical habitat, but also the increase of shipping and seismic exploration. We need to know more about Icewhales in order to mitigate the challenges that they will face.

THE ICEWHALE

Icewhales are huge baleen whales with thick rounded bodies, record large flukes, conspicuous black-spotted white chins and the biggest mouths in the world. These massive whales can weigh up to 100.000 kg, the second largest animal species next to the Blue Whale. They can reach lifespans of over two hundred years which makes them the longest-living mammals on the planet. Year-round bound to the sea-ice, the Icewhale is the only large whale endemic to the Arctic.

SINGER-SONGWRITERS

Recordings with a fixed hydrophone at a location high up north in the Arctic show Icewhales displaying a great diversity of complex whale songs in the middle of the dark polar winter, year after year. It seems that Icewhales gather in open leads within dense sea-ice. The sophisticated whale songs presumably play a role in courtship and mating behaviour as a kind of singer-songwriter contest. Until now, hardly anything is known about Icewhale reproduction.

STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION

Before Arctic whaling commenced, Icewhales were found in immense numbers along the entire coast of Spitsbergen. The species has been hunted extensively for their fat and baleens most notably by the Netherlands.

Icewhales have a near-circumpolar distribution around the ice shield covering the Arctic Ocean. After industrial whaling stopped mid-20th century the species was marked on the Red List as ‘very rare’. The current IUCN-status of the species is ‘least concern’ because global population size increased. However, two of four recognized populations, Spitsbergen and Okhotsk, are still listed as ‘endangered’. Notwithstanding the species overall status ‘least concern’, the current estimated number of Icewhales is a faint reflection of pre-whaling population sizes, while new threats arise.

ICEWHALE EXPEDITIONS

We are preparing a series of unique scientific expeditions, deep into the sea-ice during the darkness of the polar winter, where Icewhales are supposed to reside, mate and reproduce. This way we can learn about the life of the Icewhales and their interactions with the environment. In doing so, we turn the Icewhale from a scarcely known species into a well-known Icon of the Arctic, a figurehead of sustainable conservation and development.

MARVEL

Backed by a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and in cooperation with Delft University of Technology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and Conoship Naval Architects, we produced a feasibility study and basic design of MARVEL. This Modular Arctic Research Vessel is especially designed and equipped to investigate the hardly accessible drift-ice zone and to safely withstand the dynamic pressures of drifting ice under harsh weather conditions. This strong and compact vessel will operate autonomously during four to five months throughout the polar winter night, with a limited crew of scientists, engineers and navigators. The crew operates like astronauts in a space station: Icenauts who will be supported 24/7 by a Ground Control Station.

LABS, DRONES AND SUBS

MARVEL accommodates up to four hi-cube 20 ft containers that serve as research laboratories for various scientific disciplines.

The principal methods to access the environment above and under the ice cover are drones and the moonpool. Aerial and underwater drones are used for sampling and observations and to set out instruments for acoustical recordings. The moonpool offers access from the sheltered interior of the vessel to the underwater environment and the underside of the sea-ice. Scientists can lower a wide variety of sampling, measuring and observation instruments through the moonpool, as well as scuba divers and submersible robotics.

Icewhale Expeditions