♪
[Narrator]
The Arctic -
a vast,
forbidding wilderness.
It seems steadfast
and ageless.
But it is fragile,
rapidly changing,
just as we're beginning
to unravel its mysteries.
♪
At the mouth of Canada's
longest river,
life flourishes
in a network of channels
and islands.
♪
Creatures flock to
the light
in a seasonal blaze of sunshine.
♪
As spring arrives,
the frozen tundra yields
to lush meadows,
where prehistoric
creatures graze.
♪
In winter, only the
toughest remain.
♪
But times are changing.
Temperatures are rising.
And habitats
are crumbling.
Life on the delta
must adapt or die.
♪
This is a voyage of
discovery through the
changing world of
the Mackenzie Delta.
♪
♪
On the far northwest
coast of Canada,
the country's longest river,
the Mackenzie,
flows into the frigid
Beaufort Sea.
This vast fan of water
and neighboring islands
encompass a rich
biodiversity.
The Mackenzie Delta
is the largest
pristine delta
in North America.
♪
It shifts from the boreal
forest circling the Arctic,
beyond the tree line,
to the open tundra.
♪
Here we find islands that
formed in unusual ways.
♪
The land lies on an immense
underbelly of permafrost.
♪
The waters nurture diverse
little creatures
that tell the story of a
changing Arctic.
♪
Summer migration brings
home millions of birds...
Fish,
and mammals.
♪
Humans come here,
too.
♪
They gather at a summer
meeting place on an
uninhabited speck of land
west of the Mackenzie Delta.
♪
This is Herschel Island.
♪
Herschel has only existed
since the last ice age.
♪
Thirty thousand years ago,
an edge of the advancing
Laurentide Ice Sheet
thrust up sediment
to form the island.
♪
Herschel Island's
ecosystem has been created
by extreme swings
between the seasons.
♪
From brutal winter cold,
in the minus 50s,
to the bustling activity of
a brief summer,
when temperatures
can be tropical.
Wildlife scurries
to make the most
of this fleeting opportunity.
The land animal
that knows this best
has travelled furthest:
the caribou.
Some come from the woods
of the Yukon,
through forest,
and over mountains,
where the beat of
their hooves
over 26,000 years
has worn tracks in the rock.
They're returning to
their calving grounds.
A few make an hour's
swim to Herschel Island.
A calf can be born and on
the move within hours,
keeping pace
with the adults.
♪
The herd's survival
depends on calves living
past their first week,
when they have a better
chance of outrunning
a predator.
The caribou share this
land with some of their kin,
reindeer.
This is Canada's
only herd.
They were brought from
Alaska in the 1930s,
when caribou had dwindled here
and local people faced famine.
♪
The herd now lives in
this region year round,
moving across the tundra,
searching for lichen,
leaves, and grasses to eat.
All the while looking out for
predators such as
wolves or grizzly bears.
♪
The preservation of
Herschel and its wildlife
are a priority to
the local Inuit.
Senior Park Ranger,
Richard Gordon,
spends his summer monitoring
the island's animals.
&gt;&gt; Qikiqtaryuk is the
Inuvialuit name
for Herschel Island,
meaning "our island."
Herschel Island is a
territorial park;
means that everyone has
the responsibility
to take care of it for
future generations.
♪
&gt;&gt; More than a hundred
species of birds from
all over North and South
America converge
on Herschel Island.
♪
These sandhill cranes
flew from Mexico -
a three-month journey.
They've navigated by
their inner compass,
geographic memory, the sun,
and the stars.
They've learned from older
members of the flock,
and are driven by an urge
to return to their birthplace.
Their arrival begins by
aggressively staking out
territory, reclaiming
their birthright
on Herschel Island.
♪
The sandhill are
monogamous for life,
forging their bond by
singing loudly in unison
and dancing in harmony.
♪
This pair could be
together for twenty years.
♪
She will lay two
or three eggs,
and the chicks will
call from inside
before they hatch.
♪
The parents' devotion
persists in their offspring.
The family will stay
together for the
next migration back south.
And the one after,
when they fly back
to Herschel Island.
♪
For over 800 years,
the Inuit of the western Arctic
have come to
Herschel Island
to hunt caribou and fish
for herring and char.
♪
&gt;&gt; Heavy!
Oh yeah!
Look at all that char!
Look at this one!
Holy!
Look!
Oh!
You look at it.
&gt;&gt; Robert Archie has
come here every year,
since he was three.
&gt;&gt; Beautiful.
&gt;&gt; It would be a precarious
existence if the community
always relied on the
bounty of the sea or land.
♪
Archie's people found a
way to preserve a good harvest,
to tide them over
when pickings become slim.
Behind this door is an
ingenious excavation.
♪
Below the topsoil is earth
that stays frozen solid
through summer:
permafrost.
So, to store
fish and meat,
the Inuit have carved out
a communal fridge.
♪
The permafrost here is
some of the world's deepest.
It reaches
2,300 feet down.
♪
Only the top two feet
of the ground thaw each summer.
♪
The tension between
the surface warmth and the
underlying permafrost
has created
fascinating land formations.
♪
Beautifully symmetric
patterns are formed on the
surface by the repeated
freezing and thawing
of the soil.
♪
The most impressive
permafrost land formation
can be found a four-hour
boat ride east of Herschel,
on Richards Island.
♪
It can be seen
from far away -
a "pingo,"
the Inuit word for
this type of hill,
which has a core of ice.
♪
This pingo is called
"Aklisuktuk,"
which means "growing fast."
As far as pingos go,
this one's young,
200 years old.
Tall as an apartment building,
rising 100 feet
above the tundra...
This pingo was formed when
a tundra lake drained.
As the water seeped away,
the saturated lakebed
was exposed to icy
air and wind.
The earth began
freezing and expanding.
With solid permafrost beneath,
the ground buckled and had
nowhere to go but up,
creating the pingo.
♪
A pingo is often the same
shape and size as
the body of water from
which it grew.
This one became an island
when water flooded
back around it.
♪
Aklisuktuk is a landmark,
used by locals
to navigate the channels.
Nearby, around the corner
from Richards Island,
is a bay that offers
a safe harbor.
Every summer, Kugmallit Bay
is the destination of
one of the Arctic's
great migrations.
♪
It's the gathering place
of a special ocean mammal.
(whale sounds)
Their high-pitched twitter
heralds the arrival
of the playful beluga,
one of the smallest whales.
♪
Every year,
over 5,000 are drawn
to these shallow
waters to breed.
♪
Belugas can reach the
weight of a small SUV.
Although they usually
swim at a shallow depth,
they've been reported to
dive deeper than 2600 feet.
They are one of the few whales
that can turn their heads,
and swim on their back,
all the better to
look up for
openings in the ice.
♪
Unlike most whales,
belugas don't have a
stabilizing dorsal fin,
which could be damaged
by swimming close under the ice.
♪
They have a smaller
dorsal ridge instead.
And well-distributed
blubber to make them
both stable and nimble.
♪
Belugas are the only
whales to shed their skin.
They're probably attracted
to Kugmallit Bay because
there the salty Beaufort
Sea mixes with the
Mackenzie River's
fresh water.
This softer water helps
the beluga shed and cleanse
their skin of parasites,
as it rub its body
along the gravel riverbed.
♪
Females and their calves
often travel
in separate groups
from the males.
♪
And the mothers swim
further from Kugmallit Bay,
at the Delta's outer edge,
into the estuary waters,
seeking quiet spots to
suckle their young.
♪
Here, teeming water
sculpts the land.
♪
All of this was
once Arctic Ocean.
♪
Over thousands of years,
the surging Mackenzie River
has deposited millions
of tonnes of sediment.
It created a massive delta,
with over 25,000 lakes
and channels.
♪
This is the northern edge of
North America's boreal forest.
♪
Larch and spruce trees
struggle between the
extremes of
summer and winter.
There's a thin layer of
topsoil over permafrost,
so their roots
are fragile.
Decomposition here takes years,
providing sparse
nutrients to the trees.
♪
The Delta's warm micro-climate
allows these trees
to grow further
north than anywhere else
in North America.
♪
The Mackenzie Delta is
constantly in flux.
♪
Lakes and channels
transform with the seasons.
When the ice breaks in spring,
water sweeps through,
carving fresh paths.
Microbiology holds secrets
to the Arctic food web
that scientists
seek to uncover.
Few species survive here,
so each holds a crucial role.
If one species dies,
the results ripple far.
Insects are key.
Biologists Ryan Scott and
Frankie Talarico
from York University
conduct ongoing research
in the delta.
&gt;&gt; Okay, so that's a
dragonfly larva.
It's a pretty small one.
They get to be a few
centimeters long.
This is a dragonfly
in the genus Aeshna.
It's a mature larva,
so it's fairly close to
hatching, and becoming
an adult dragonfly.
&gt;&gt; Dragonflies have been
around for millions of years.
They play a vital role
in the Arctic food web.
Without them, these
meadows might be barren -
no flowers,
a lot less vegetation,
fewer mammals,
and no birds.
This ecosystem
functions like a clock.
But the clock has been
thrown off by climate change.
These eider ducks flew
here for spring
a few weeks ago from Russia.
Their ducklings
have hatched.
So have the dragonfly larvae,
which are ducklings'
favorite food,
and contain about
twice the protein of steak.
In recent years,
spring has arrived
earlier and earlier.
The warming temperatures
mean larvae can hatch
before the ducklings.
The ducklings are then
born too late
for the nourishment they need.
Many other shore birds depend
on this delicate food web,
including these sandpipers.
They feel their way into
soil and muddy water
for delicious invertebrates.
♪
The semipalmated plover
has sharp eyes to find
larvae, worms,
insects, and molluscs.
♪
Most of these flew from
Texas to breed here.
Both parents
incubate the eggs.
A chick can hatch and
leave the nest
within hours to feed itself.
But the mother and father
keep guard while it rushes
to eat and grow before
the long flight south,
escaping winter.
Not all Arctic creatures
want to escape.
Behold the wood frog.
No other amphibian lives
this far north in North America.
Wood Frogs hibernate by
tucking into underbrush
and withstanding temperatures
way below freezing.
♪
The Wood Frog survives
the Arctic winter with
two-thirds of
its body frozen.
♪
Its heart stops beating and
it can hold its
breath for months.
Its survival depends on
a mid-summer bug buffet.
With this diet, the Wood
Frog can fatten up
in a few weeks
and make it through
eight months of
winter hibernation.
It has withstood
the test of time.
Here in the Arctic,
evolution selects
those who learn
to deal with winter.
♪
Beyond this solitary
tree is tundra,
and a different ecosystem,
built on low-growth vegetation.
♪
The Mackenzie Delta's maze
of lakes and channels
challenges boat pilots.
They can get lost,
snagged on floating logs,
or stuck on a sandbar.
♪
Gerry Kisoun is on a
three-day journey
to Herschel Island,
where his family
has hunted for generations.
&gt;&gt; Yeah, no civilization
for a few days, here.
We'll try not
to get lost.
♪
&gt;&gt; After a day and a half,
Gerry successfully
navigates through
the Delta's waters.
♪
Before tackling the
Beaufort Sea,
Gerry pit-stops at a popular
Inuit fishing ground,
Shingle Point.
♪
At this time of year,
there's an abundance of
cisco herring
and arctic char.
These families want to
catch enough fish during
the brief summer to see
them through winter.
Char is a big player in
the Arctic food web.
Those that come here spend
most of their lives
in Yukon rivers.
They come to the ocean in
summer to feed on
small fish and crustaceans.
♪
The char are eaten in turn
by seals, polar bears,
and humans.
♪
Those that survive swim
back to Yukon rivers
and spawn, starting
the cycle again.
♪
The role of fish in the
food web of this region
has long interested
scientists.
Researcher Dana Neumann
is looking for signs of
environmental change
in these fish.
&gt;&gt; This is an arctic cisco.
What we're doing now,
it's an Arctic coastal
ecosystem study.
A part of that is just
looking at all the fish
that are here, and we even
take invertebrates,
just looking at the food web,
and how everything
kind of comes together.
That way you can tell
who's eating who,
and how the food web is built.
&gt;&gt; It starts with the char's
smallest prey, the mysid.
These tiny crustaceans at
the base of the food chain
are first to show signs
of a polluted ecosystem.
High levels of mercury
have been found in mysids
in the Beaufort Sea.
A remaining question is -
how long will the fish
that eat the mysids
still be safe to eat?
(Applause, cheering)
(crowd chatter, laughter)
The long summer days are
an opportunity for Inuit
from remote villages to
come together,
exchange news,
tell the latest jokes,
and play games.
(crowd chatter, laughter)
♪
After an evening with old
friends at Shingle Point,
Gerry must head off to
Herschel Island
while the weather is good.
Bye.
- Bye, Gerry!
(honking)
- Bye!
♪
He faces a two-hour trip
across the cold waters
of the Beaufort Sea.
♪
The Beaufort Sea is frozen
most of the year.
But over the
last thirty years,
it's been
steadily warming,
and there's more
open water for longer.
♪
The sea ice is
unpredictable,
forever moving and changing.
Much is new,
but some has persisted for
hundreds of years,
moving with the currents
of the Beaufort Sea.
♪
Finally, Gerry arrives
at Pauline Cove,
on Herschel Island.
♪
&gt;&gt; It's a beautiful feeling
when you can make it
to Herschel Island.
♪
Hey! Welcome to Herschel
Island... Qikiqtaryuk.
&gt;&gt; Gerry docks by a cluster
of old buildings,
remains of the late 1800's,
when whalers came
to the Beaufort Sea.
Fifteen ships at a time
filled this protected bay.
♪
Herschel Island's
isolation was broken,
and its native culture
disrupted.
One whaler reported that
the bowheads were
"as thick as bees".
They almost
wiped them out.
They killed them to
harvest oil for lamps.
And for baleen,
the strong,
flexible bristles in
the whale's mouth
that filter krill -
used to make women's corsets.
But by the early 1900s,
the market for
these products had collapsed.
The Arctic whaling
industry ended.
♪
With stricter regulations
since, the bowhead
population in the Beaufort
Sea is strong again.
♪
Today, an indigenous
land-claim agreement
has returned Herschel
Island to the Inuit.
♪
In mid-summer, more than
200 species of plants
burst into
bloom on Herschel...
♪
There's cotton grass,
ground shrubs,
and wildflowers.
♪
The humid, maritime
climate fosters
a lush growth of fireweed,
camomile,
lousewort,
forget-me-not,
buttercup...
And many others...
♪
Cotton grass thrives in
boggy areas and
by ponds and streams.
It's the most
widely-flowering plant
in the northern hemisphere.
The fluffy pod releases
seeds carried by the wind.
Inuit use the fibers to
insulate clothes and bedding,
and to start fires.
♪
And caribou love to
eat cotton grass.
♪
Another caribou favorite
is the castilleja,
commonly known as
Indian Paintbrush,
which is edible for people too
and rich in the
mineral selenium.
♪
The woolly lousewort is
named after the hairy stem
that insulates
the growing flowers.
They produce a sweet nectar,
sucked from the
base of the petals.
The roots taste
like young carrots.
Lemmings live and die
here with the plants.
When the plants thrive,
the lemmings thrive.
And when the plants die,
so do the lemmings.
They live in
underground colonies
they excavate below
the topsoil,
which can extend for acres.
When there's an
abundance of food,
they're quick to breed.
This year, the lemmings
and plants are flourishing
throughout
Herschel Island.
♪
This proliferation of
plants is, however,
a sign of unusual change.
Scientists come from afar
to study the vegetation here.
♪
Dr. Isla Myers-Smith has
come from the
University of Edinburgh
in Scotland.
These are the gravestones
of whalers,
buried over a hundred years ago.
Photographs taken over the
years have inadvertently
recorded the steady,
increasing growth
of surrounding shrubs.
&gt;&gt; As you can see on this
branch here,
they're growing each year,
around here that's about
four or five
centimeters of growth
just from this summer,
so far.
♪
&gt;&gt; With warming temperatures,
the shrubs have expanded
all the way to the
edge of the island.
♪
Here there's more dramatic
evidence of climate change.
Erosion.
Herschel Island is crumbling
into the sea.
♪
Exposed permafrost on
the island's edges is thawing.
♪
Temperatures are rising
globally, and in the
Arctic it's almost
twice as fast.
♪
The warming climate brings
more violent storms.
The lower edges of the
cliffs' permafrost are now
exposed to the eroding
power of thunderous waves.
♪
Every day, tonnes of
soil slide into the sea.
♪
Herschel Island is in
danger of vanishing.
♪
The noble peregrine falcon
is rendered vulnerable.
It likes to nest on cliffs,
but its habitat here
is falling away.
This year, a pair has
managed to find a perch on
the cliff face to nest
and raise its brood.
But with the cliffs
dissolving into the sea,
how many more Peregrine
chicks will call Herschel home?
♪
The scars left by the
thawing and sinking earth
are traveling inland,
a harbinger of
impending collapse.
♪
The creature that has
witnessed these
profound changes most
has been around
since before the last ice age.
It once roamed the Arctic
with the saber-toothed cat
and woolly mammoth,
but survived the
mass extinctions of
13,000 years ago...
The muskox.
♪
Muskoxen grazed at
the edge of the
great Laurentide Ice Sheet.
♪
But this is a different
landscape and time.
♪
These two old bulls face a
greater challenge to find food.
A warming climate has
created a paradox.
The warmth forms a fog
that covers the ground and
freezes vegetation
for more of the year.
For now, they are content
to cool off by the water.
Not far up the bank,
other bulls are in rut.
They're ready to mate.
♪
First, they want to fend off
their rivals for the cows.
To do this, they smear
their forelegs and
mark their trails with a
secretion from
glands by their eyes.
This strongly-scented musk
gave the species its name.
♪
Then the bulls challenge
each other to determine
who is dominant.
♪
This display of strength
and virility determines
which the females
might choose.
♪
This bull lost and can
only wait until next year -
when he can try again.
This prehistoric species
has witnessed
great changes in the region.
♪
These oil rigs,
built in the 70's,
were abandoned in
the 80's and 90's,
after limited success and
falling oil prices.
But many companies are
keen to try again.
The Arctic is said to
house 13% of the world's oil,
and 30% of
its natural gas.
And in a warmer Arctic,
it could be easier
to explore and drill.
♪
These waters are likely to
face another invasion
by those who want to extract
the Arctic's hidden resources.
♪
The Inuit have lived here
for almost 1,000 years.
Over the last 150,
they've felt many disruptions
in their relationship
with the land,
the animals,
and the sea.
They still keep a deep
connection with
Herschel Island and the
Mackenzie Delta.
They remain skilled at
preparing muktuk,
a traditional food made
from aged whale skin
and blubber.
They understand how to survive
in the Arctic wilderness,
with extreme
changes in seasons,
and know how to read
the weather.
♪
&gt;&gt; We are here today,
there's a generation tomorrow.
And a generation
after that.
We have to ensure that
Herschel Island stays a
safe feeding ground for
the arctic char,
the herring,
and the belugas.
It holds a lot of history,
and this history,
as you walk along this beach,
can be washed up
in front of you by the moving
waves and the currents.
♪
&gt;&gt; The Arctic is an often
hostile environment.
But it is fragile,
too.
♪
The web of interdependence
between species
is finely balanced.
Summer offers a brief
opportunity for new life.
♪
As winter approaches,
darkness descends.
Caribou and birds can
escape south for warmth.
♪
Others - such as
muskoxen and wood frogs -
must endure the
ferocious elements,
and wait for the warming sun
to return next spring.
♪
