On a swath of frozen ocean outside Cambridge Bay, Nvt., a company has been testing an approach to thicken sea ice to prevent it from disappearing as the climate warms.
The U.K.-based company, Real Ice, is wrapping up its second season of tests outside the Arctic community, which lies on the coast of Victoria Island alongside the Northwest Passage. Its experimental approach involves drilling holes through the ice to pump water to the surface during the coldest months of winter, where it quickly solidifies in the freezing air.
Ice thickening is an example of a category of highly controversial interventions aimed at modifying the climate to combat warming. Real Ice has drawn sharp criticism from scientists, who question the environmental impacts of the company’s experimental efforts and the feasibility of scaling up.
But unlike many geoengineering projects, Real Ice’s experiments have garnered local support so far. According to the Nunavut Impact Review Board, the work to date is unlikely to cause adverse environmental impacts. Although not all Cambridge Bay residents are aware of the project, those who have heard about it tend to be on board with the initiative.
The community—known as Ikaluktutiak in Inuinnaqtun, which is often translated as “place of many fish”—is home to nearly 1,800 residents, roughly 80 per cent of whom are Inuit. Located on Victoria Island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Cambridge Bay sits above the Arctic Circle and serves as a hub for the western Arctic. Sea ice forms the backdrop of life for much of the year. As the climate warms, residents have been witnessing drastic changes.
For some, the goal of saving sea ice resonates because it supports the continuation of cultural and traditional practices. Others see applications for sea ice thickening besides fighting climate change. At a smaller scale, it could be useful for building roads, reinforcing snowmobile routes or supporting fish and wildlife populations.
Five Cambridge Bay residents tell us what sea ice means to them, as well as how they see their home changing and, if they have heard about Real Ice, what they think about the effort.
The following interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
There’s a lot of things that the sea ice provides to our communities. People travel on the ice to harvest on the mainland, a.k.a. Canada. People travel from Cambridge Bay to Kugluktuk on the sea ice, too. My sister is one of them. They camp along the way, so they go for about a week. It’s better than spending so much money on airline tickets.
Here in the bay, the ice is all smooth. But once you get out into the ocean, to the actual sea ice, it’s like all of these boulders. The way that the ice freezes and moves, you have to really be careful where you drive your Ski-Doo. Cracks in the ice happen earlier and in different areas than they used to be. It’s terrifying because there’s fresh snow that covers the cracks so you can’t always see them.
What we were taught as kids growing up is that there’s a sea ice monster called the Qalupalik who will steal you and take you under the ice forever and eat you. We teach our kids that because we don’t want them to get into dangerous situations. The Qalupalik have really long, stringy hair and really long hands.
I don’t remember the other sea ice legends, but that’s one of the ones where it’s like, ‘Do not go near black ice. Do not go near ice cracks because they’re gonna steal you.’ Terrifying — especially as a little kid.
I was part of some of Real Ice’s engagements. I also put them in touch with my grandfather, and we had a separate meeting. He was sharing cool stories about how they used to sell ice to Japan. They would go out to lakes and harvest all this ice and ship it by cargo to Japan for a special drink they had there. This was in the 1970s. He had some really good stories to share that I honestly don’t think I would have ever heard if Real Ice hadn’t been doing engagements.
We have a bunch of Elders who tell us stories about when they used to go on the ice. From their time to our time, we can’t go at the same time. I’m hoping that when I tell my kids stories, that they can have a similar experience and it’s not drastically changed. I’m very supportive of the Real Ice project because I do have a legacy and a family. I would like them to experience sea ice. But who knows how much it’ll change between now and then.
Long ago, we used to live in tents or snow houses in the winter. That’s how I grew up. I was mostly out on the land until I was 14. I would go into town only to resupply. We would fish, hunt, do chores. I was never bored and never lonely. You always have something to do when you’re out on the land.
One of the best parts was when my parents would bring a sled-load of fish to the co-op in Paulatuk. We would make an ice house to keep the fish in. We would build ice walls and then cover the top with plywood, so no animals could get in. Once in a while, we would go out in the ocean and go seal hunting.
We would go by dog team and see what kind of animals we could see. Dogs, they can find where the seal area is. When you find that area, you make the dogs go away a little bit and stand there really quiet, until you hear breathing. When the water comes up, you harpoon. The last time I went seal hunting like that was around 2003. I miss being out on the land.
The weather’s been changing quite a bit. The decreasing ice is kind of hard to detect with snowmobiles, but with dog teams it’s okay. Snowmobiles, you can’t hear the ice cracking, but dog teams know which way to go. They know when the ice is too thin. They just feel it. I grew up using dog teams, then I tried snow machines, and I don’t like machines. There was a dog slaughter, so the dogs are just coming back slowly.
I worry about melting sea ice for the younger people. It doesn’t matter to me because I can’t go out anymore. I worry about how the younger people are going to survive. Most of them are only playing with their phone, not paying attention to who’s teaching them. I feel sorry for the generation to come. When we’re gone and they want to do something for themselves, who’s going to teach them?
I only heard about Real Ice for the first time recently. That could be a good idea, but I don’t know. They can try. If the youth can learn about ice, it could be good for the future.
I was born in that time before Cambridge Bay was ever built, or when it was just being built. It was quiet back then. Less people, there were no vehicles, barely any snowmobiles. No housing. Planes once a month. I was just a young girl, so I never really knew the difference, but now I know the difference, that it was very quiet and peaceful.
I went to school from kindergarten to grade three by dog team. We would travel across the bay to the federal day school. By that time, we all had to go to school as little kids. Then I was forced to go to residential school and move away from my family and my grandparents and my Elders, my community.
I’m not a hunter, but I’ve seen changes on the land. We don’t have any caribou anymore. I used to sit and watch caribou go by, heading from the ocean up towards the calving grounds. You don’t see that anymore. Muskox used to be everywhere. When you drive out onto the roads or out to the ocean, you could see muskox grazing everywhere. Not anymore.
We’re finding more grizzly bears coming to the island. They live more in the tree line area, but now they’re coming further north because it’s warming up. We never had that before. The grizzlies are very wild. They’re starting to wreck tents and cabins and look for food.
I went on a cruise ship a few years ago. What I saw really saddened me. The ice breaker was crushing the ice to make a trail for the fancy cruise ships coming through the Northwest Passage. That’s not right, that’s too much noise and pollution. It’s scaring all the animals away. I was at a hamlet meeting yesterday with the manager there, and he said we had 14 ships here last summer. That’s a lot.
I haven’t heard about Real Ice. But the changes make me sad. Breaks my heart. I miss the good old days. Life has changed here. But at same time, there’s lots of good things too.
Seeing if you can thicken ice from the bottom by flooding the top, that’s something that’s definitely interesting. There’s a project that’s proposing a road from Yellowknife right to the Northwest Passage, which potentially could connect us to the mainland by road. I think this project may play a role in that. There’s a lot of funding that’s been committed to the road project. They’ve been coming to the community. I actually asked one of the representatives jokingly, ‘When’s the earliest I’ll be able to drive from here to Las Vegas?’ Having something other than access by air would definitely help us as far as cost of living.
Having ice around longer could help our fish stocks too. The best fishing happens when the ice is melting and still there. The invertebrates that localize under the ice feed on the bugs that die on top the ice, and then the whole chain starts basically with ice.
There was a project that I took part in that took climate change into consideration and actually measured the biodiversity that’s happening from it. They said that there’s more life happening because of the warmer temperatures.
The polar bears are doing better. Grizzly bears are obviously doing better. The only things that are struggling are the herds of muskox and caribou, which seem to be, for the most part, struggling because there are more wolves and grizzly bears. And I guess humans play a role, too. But I think the more active environment might have a little more pressure on them because they’re not used to having all these other animals in their environment. That’s something that I’ve noticed personally.
The ocean seems to be having more life right from the bottom up. So that’s something that needs to also be considered. Everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and paint everything grim. I’m not saying it’s a great thing happening. I’m just saying there are some winners in this and there’s losers.
I’ve been with the municipality since 2010. I also help coordinate with search and rescue. The ice melts sooner and it freezes up later in the year, which for travellers out on the land causes life and safety issues. When individuals are travelling, whether it’s on the ocean or across a lake, if the ice is not as thick as it should be at that time of the year, there’s more of a chance that the traveller is going to go through the ice. We’ve had that happen several times now in the past four or five years.
It takes a significant toll on the community, especially on the search and rescue crews. It’s challenging for them. It’s not easy work. And it takes an emotional toll as well. Almost everybody is related in one way, shape or form. When they’re out there, they’re rescuing their family members, their relatives.
Real Ice did a presentation up at the Canadian High Arctic Research Station. They explained a little bit about what they were looking for, and they were taking feedback on who they should engage with and who they should talk to.
My initial thinking about the project, and it’s still the same [now]: Anything that we can do to improve the safety and the ability for the Inuit to get out on land, anything we can do to improve that, the better. One hundred per cent.
This story was supported by a field reporting grant from the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources. As per The Narwhal’s editorial independence policy, funders have no editorial input.
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