Arctic blue corridors

Arctic whales’ survival depends on their ability to safely migrate vast distances between their summer and winter habitats. Their epic migrations, which follow the advance and retreat of sea ice each autumn and spring, allow them to access the different conditions they need over a year, including food sources and places to raise their young.

Blue corridors connect the entire Arctic Ocean, across national waters and into the high seas. Tens of thousands of whales also visit the Arctic each summer to feed, making corridors a critical life support system for nearly one-third of the planet’s whale species.

Every spring and autumn, tens of thousands of whales are on the move in the Arctic Ocean. They depend on its bountiful food supply to survive and raise their young. 

The Arctic Ocean is summer gathering place for tens of thousands of whales that make epic migrations from more southern and tropical waters to feed in the highly productive Arctic Ocean as well as for those whales that live exclusively in the Arctic making seasonal migrations between their summer and winter habitats.  

These whales travel thousands of kilometres on underwater superhighways called blue corridors. They use natural cues that signal the changing of the seasons to make sure they are in the right place at the right times of year. Migrating between places is a strategy that gives whales access to food, protection from predators and the right conditions to carry out important life events such as giving birth and raising young.

© WWF

Every winter, Pacific gray whales—champion swimmers who hold the record for the longest known mammal migrations on the planet—give birth to calves in the sheltered lagoons of Mexico. In spring, they swim some 11,000 kilometres north to their summer feeding hotspots in the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic. In autumn, they head south again to repeat the journey in reverse.

Arctic whales and walrus migrate according to environmental cues that are at least partly related to sea ice. For example, narwhal in Eastern Canada swim 2,000 kilometres on return trips between their summer and winter habitats. They closely follow the retreat and advance of the ice edge to stay in the shelter of the sea ice, likely to avoid killer whales.

Whales play an important role in the fight against the climate crisis

Cetaceans – whales, dolphins and porpoises – have tremendous value for nature and people. They are at the top of the marine food web and play an important role in the overall health of our oceans, conserving other species and whole ecosystems. Whales play a significant role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere; each great whale sequesters an estimated 33 tons of CO2 on average, thus playing their part in the fight against climate change.

The Arctic is home to around 500,000 Indigenous Peoples who have lived harmoniously with nature for millennia and, for many, whales are central to their cultures, food security and livelihoods. Civil society, communities, policy makers and the private sector must all come together to implement innovative measures to safeguard whales on their migrations.

These blue corridors connect whales to their important habitats, both inside the Arctic and with the rest of the world. Let’s keep the Arctic connected for nature.