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Small businesses
The future of ecotourism in a changing Arctic
The northern Canadian town of Churchill, Manitoba has no roads in or out and fewer than 1,000 year-round residents, but it attracts tourists from all over the world. In fact, Churchill was named one of Time Magazine’s great places to visit in 2023. Situated on the shores of Hudson Bay, its main draw is that it is on the migration path of two Arctic species: polar bears and beluga whales. But what does the future hold for a tourist town that is being reshaped by the impacts of climate change?
WYATT DALEY, 27, was born and raised in Churchill. His family owns and operates Wapusk Adventures, a dog-sledding and Indigenous cultural tour company. He talked to The Circle about the changes he’s seeing in his hometown and what it could mean for tour operators like himself.
How important is tourism to Churchill today?
Back in the nineties, when I was born, tourism was still in its infancy here, and the port was a big part of our economy. But the port shut down in 2014, and tourism has since become a huge part of our economy. It’s what keeps the restaurants open, what keeps things running up here. In the polar bear season during the fall, when tourism is at its peak, there’s a different kind of hum here. Whereas after the bear season is over in late November, the town shuts down and we go back to being a one-restaurant town, basically.
© Daniel Raiti Photography
What makes Churchill so attractive to tourists?
We’re the polar bear capital of the world. That’s what we’re famous for. That’s because Churchill is where the sea ice forms first. We have the Churchill River, which meets the Hudson Bay and a bunch of other watersheds as well. So, there is all this fresh water flowing into the bay, and it dilutes the salt water so that it freezes first. The polar bears have always known to come to Churchill.
The other thing we’re famous for in the summertime is beluga whales. Churchill has some of the best whale-watching in the world because we have an estuary with around 4,000 beluga whales that visit every year to have their babies. We’re also one of the best places in the world to see the Northern Lights.
What changes are you seeing, if any, as a result of climate change?
This year we had a polar bear show up quite early. The river and Hudson Bay let go super early—I think it was May 27. That makes a huge difference in how far the bears have to swim and where they get off the ice. But other years, we have had icebergs in the bay until July. So I feel like it’s more about the weather becoming more unpredictable. Some years, we have really brutal cold, and other years, like this one, it’s the opposite—we break heat records in May and June.
When I was a kid growing up here, we didn’t have a lot of 30-plus days. But last summer and the summer before, we had long stretches where it was 33, 34 or even 35 degrees. We were the hot spot in Manitoba.
How have these fluctuations in the weather affected your business?
I find that it’s really changed our summertime tours. In the past, we’ve offered dog carting in the summertime—but those summers were a lot cooler. We had more days when it was overcast and rainy. You can’t really run the dogs in warmer weather. We’re not running dogs in the summertime much anymore because it’s just too consistently hot.
© Wapusk Adventures
What about tourism in general in Churchill? How has it been changing?
Hudson Bay can be unpredictable: in some years it freezes early, and in others it freezes later, which impacts our tourism in different ways. When the bears have to wait longer for the bay to freeze, they become more restless. More bears wander into town instead of staying out in the wildlife management area and along the coast. Also, with the higher temperatures in the summertime, the bears are less active out on the land. They’re just kind of hunkering down and trying to wait it out. So although people can still expect to see bears when they visit Churchill, climate change could alter things quickly, and the change could be massive because our identity is really based around the bears.
I think Churchill is kind of at a crossroads. As a community, there a couple different roads we could go down. I know that there are people in Churchill who are trying to change the way they do things a little because of climate change. My family’s business has always had an ecotourism focus because we run dogs and we’re not burning gas. But we also just started offering e-bike tours and rentals. We’re trying to diversify now that we can’t run dogs as often in the summertime.
I think that moving forward, ecotourism is going to be one direction that Churchill could take, but it’s hard to say how it will turn out. Really, all we can do is the best that we can.
