26 March 2026 | 13:30 - 18:00 CET
27 March 2026 | 13:30 - 18:00 CET
Closed Session / By Invitation Only - HYBRID
Room: Mødelokale 2.3
Organiser: Melanie Lancaster (WWF Global Arctic Programme, Sweden)
Session Description:
Strikingly adapted to a frozen ocean, most populations of the Arctic’s endemic whales – narwhals, beluga and bowhead whales – are migratory, travelling up to thousands of kilometres each spring and autumn, often across borders and into the high seas, closely following the ice’s seasonal advance and retreat.
These whales face an increasing set of pressures as the Arctic warms at around three times the global average. Sea ice – the essential building block of the living Arctic Ocean as we know it – is melting, with ice-free summers predicted in the Arctic sooner than 2050. Arctic whales are experiencing changes in and loss of their essential habitats, shifts in prey abundance, competition from boreal species and increased predation risk. Growing industrial development of the once-closed Arctic adds new and additional stress to their ability to cope with rapid change.
Sea ice loss and more open water has led to an unprecedented increase in Arctic ship traffic and associated underwater noise, and a greater risk of fatal collisions between vessels and whales. Understanding where migratory routes (so called Arctic blue corridors) are, when they are active and how migratory behaviour is changing with climate change is essential for applying area-based measures to safeguard migrating whales from impacts of shipping. To this end, WWF and partners are working together to create a geo-spatial database and accompanying series of maps that bring together the best available information on migratory routes of all known migratory populations of narwhal, beluga and bowhead whales across the whole Arctic Ocean, as well as select seasonal visiting species. The database will be the first of its kind to be created.
A workshop (two half-days) during the Arctic Science Summit Week will bring together experts to together define and agree on an approach for collating and visualising whale migration routes based on science and, where possible, Indigenous Knowledge. Scientists and Indigenous Knowledge holders and Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations will be invited to participate in the workshop as active contributors to and co-shapers of the process and the content. The final output will be a compendium of current knowledge on Arctic cetacean migration routes and a tool for applying area-based conservation efforts to safeguard migrating whales and keep the Arctic and the world’s oceans connected.