scholarly journals Exhibition Note: Lines in the Ice at the British Library

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Hatfield
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
British Library ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
American Interest ◽  
Innovation And Technology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Science Innovation

During the winter of 2014-15 the British Library ran a medium-sized exhibition in its Entrance Hall Gallery, Lines in the Ice: Seeking the Northwest Passage. Fortuitously benefiting from news in the summer of 2014 about the location of HMS Erebus, one of the ships from the fateful expedition of Sir John Franklin, the exhibition sought to take a long view of the history of polar exploration, particularly in the Canadian Arctic. In so doing, the aim of the exhibition was to explore the circumstances which have maintained European and North American interest in the Arctic, from trade to resources and geopolitics. The exhibition sought to ask how this has developed and what effect it has had on the societies of the explorers and the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Within this historical narrative, science, innovation and technology played an important role. This note considers how the exhibition developed our understanding of the historic and contemporary significance of science and its practice in the Arctic.

scholarly journals Inuvialuit Knowledge of Pacific Salmon Range Expansion in the Western Canadian Arctic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zander Kaleb Einar Chila ◽  
Karen Dunmall ◽  
Tracey Proverbs ◽  
Trevor Lantz ◽  
Aklavik Hunters and Trappers Committee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Fish Species ◽  
Pacific Salmon ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Ecosystems ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Rapid Climate Change ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
History Of

Rapid climate change is altering Arctic ecosystems and significantly affecting the livelihoods and cultural traditions of Arctic Indigenous peoples. In the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR), an increase in the harvest of Pacific salmon indicates largescale changes influencing Inuvialuit fisheries. In this project we recorded and synthesized Inuvialuit knowledge of Pacific salmon. We conducted 54 interviews with Inuvialuit fishers about the history of Pacific salmon harvest, how it has changed in recent decades, and concurrent changes to local environments and fish species. Our interviews show that historic, incidental salmon harvest in the ISR ranged from infrequent to common among western communities, but was rare or unprecedented among eastern communities. Participants in all six communities reported a recent increase in salmon harvest and attributed this shift to regional environmental change. Fishers were concerned that salmon would negatively affect their cultural traditions and preferred fish species. Given uncertainty about the effects of salmon on local fisheries, research on salmon diets in the Arctic, their subsidies to Arctic freshwater systems, and the likelihood of their establishment is vital.

Claiming Spaces for Science

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-199
Author(s):  
Adam M. Sowards
Keyword(s):  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Professional Literature ◽  
Popular Discourse ◽  
Scientific Authority ◽  
Competing Demands ◽  
Complicated Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
External Forces ◽  
Reciprocal Process

Exploration has always centered on claims: for country, for commerce, for character. Claims for useful scientific knowledge also grew out of exploration’s varied activities across space and time. The history of the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913–18 exposes the complicated process of claim-making. The expedition operated in and made claims on many spaces, both material and rhetorical, or, put differently, in several natural and discursive spaces. In making claims for science, the explorer-scientists navigated competing demands on their commitments and activities from their own predilections and from external forces. Incorporating Arctic spaces into the Canadian polity had become a high priority during the era when the CAE traversed the Arctic. Science through exploration—practices on the ground and especially through scientific and popular discourse—facilitated this integration. So, claiming space was something done on the ground, through professional literature, and within popular narratives—and not always for the same ends. The resulting narrative tensions reveal the messy material, political, and rhetorical spaces where humans do science. This article demonstrates how explorer-scientists claimed material and discursive spaces to establish and solidify their scientific authority. When the CAE claimed its spaces in nature, nation, and narrative, it refracted a reciprocal process whereby the demands of environment, state, and discourse also claimed the CAE.

An early nineteenth century meteorological register from the eastern Canadian Arctic

Polar Record ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (178) ◽  
pp. 335-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul A. Kay
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Modern Experience ◽  
Eastern Canadian Arctic

AbstractSignificant warming in the Arctic is anticipated for doubled-CO2 scenarios, but temperatures in the eastern Canadian Arctic have not yet exhibited that trend in the last few decades. The spatial juxtaposition of the winter station in 1822–1823 of William Edward Parry's Northwest Passage expedition with the modern Igloolik Research Centre of the Science Institute of the Northwest Territories affords an opportunity for historical reconstruction and comparison. Parry's data are internally consistent. The association of colder temperatures with westerly and northerly winds, and wanner temperatures with easterly and southerly winds, is statistically significant. Temperatures are not exactly comparable between the two time periods because of differences in instrumentation, exposure, and frequency of readings. Nevertheless, in 1822–1823, November and December appear to have been cold and January to March mild compared to modern experience. Anomalously, winds were more frequently northerly (and less frequently westerly) in the latter months than in recent observations. Parry recorded two warm episodes in mid-winter, but, overall, it appears that the winter of 1822–1823 was not outside the range of modern experience.

5. Exploration and exploitation

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-107
Author(s):  
Klaus Dodds ◽  
Jamie Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
New World ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Industrial Scale ◽  
Exploration And Exploitation ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Canadian North ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arctic Exploration ◽  
Last 300 Years

‘Exploration and exploitation’ reviews the history of Arctic exploration and exploitation, which owes a great deal to early European encounters with the 'New World'. This topic includes the earliest Viking settlement of Greenland to a succession of European explorers and expeditions that were designed to search for the Northwest Passage. The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), which specialized in fur trading, was integral to the early exploitation of the Canadian north since it was chartered in May 1670. The history and presence of industrial-scale mining in the Arctic over the last 300 years also played an important part. The term 'Arctic paradox', used by Arctic observers, describes a series of contradictory pressures facing the region—managing resources, promoting sustainable development, and ensuring that indigenous and northern communities are beneficiaries from any form of resource-led development.

Marine Navigation in the Canadian Arctic

1952 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
J. H. MacLean
Keyword(s):  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Ellesmere Island ◽  
North Pole ◽  
British Government ◽  
Short Route ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
Marine Navigation

The history of marine navigation in the area to the north of Hudson Straits and west of Greenland dates back to Martin Frobisher in 1567, John Davis in 1585 (who reached N. 72° 15′), and William Baffin, who got as far as Smith Sound (N. 77° 45′) in 1616. All of them were searching for a short route to the East. There was little exploration in the area for the next two-hundred years, until, in 1818, the British Government recommended explorations for the Northwest Passage: This activity continued throughout the Franklin era up to 1875, when Captain George Nares proceeded to N. 82° 25′ on the northern end of Ellesmere Island. After this, the role of exploration gradually passed to American hands, largely culminating in 1909 with Robert E. Peary's attainment of the North Pole.

scholarly journals Structural violence and the 1962-1963 tuberculosis epidemic in Eskimo Point, N.W.T.

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank James Tester ◽  
Paule McNicoll ◽  
Quyen Tran
Keyword(s):  
Structural Violence ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
The Social ◽  
Psychological Harm ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arctic Coast

In the winter of 1962-1963, an epidemic of tuberculosis broke out in Eskimo Point, an Inuit community on the west coast of Hudson Bay in the Canadian Arctic. The outbreak was made possible by bad living conditions, among the worst ever documented in the history of the Canadian Arctic. The epidemic reveals the intersection of social attitudes, the economic logic of a postwar Canadian welfare state, and the difficult transition being made by Inuit moving from tents, igloos, and land-based camps to settlements along the Arctic coast. It is a case of “structural violence” where rules, policies, and social institutions operate in ways that cause physical and psychological harm to people lacking the power and/or resources necessary to changing the social systems and conditions in which they live. Both individuals and entire communities are affected. With regard to past—and present—Inuit housing conditions, we invoke the concept of structural violence to stress the importance of identifying and speaking about public health problems as a violation of internationally recognised human rights.

Tracing One Warm Line: Climate Stories and Silences in Northwest Passage Tourism

2021 ◽  
pp. e20200006
Author(s):  
Jenny Kerber
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Cruise Tourism ◽  
Significant Measure ◽  
Bear Witness

This article examines representations of polar cruise tourism in the Northwest Passage as climate change extends the geographic range of open waters and increases the number of ice-free days in the Canadian Arctic. It connects current cruise promotion to earlier exploration histories and investigates the paradoxes that arise in the drive to bear witness to climate change while accelerating its impacts through carbon-intensive travel. It also examines some of the ways that Franklin expedition tourism in particular is being used to reinforce claims of Canadian sovereignty over Arctic resources. Overall, the promotion of this kind of maritime tourism highlights many of the key fault lines between visitor expectations and geophysical and cultural realities in a changing North, raising doubts about whether expanded development of such tourism can succeed in creating climate change ambassadors. The article concludes that the potential for developing cross-cultural environmental justice solidarities depends in significant measure on the tourism industry’s greater inclusion of Inuit perspectives that understand the Arctic not merely as a place to travel through, but as a homeland of earth, sea, and the shifting ice between.

Beach observations of plastic and marine litter along the Northwest Passage

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gijsbers ◽  
Hester Jiskoot
Keyword(s):  
Marine Pollution ◽  
Chukchi Sea ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Bering Strait ◽  
Marine Litter ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Distant Early Warning ◽  
Dew Line

<p>Marine litter and microplastics are everywhere. Even the Arctic Ocean, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Island are contaminated as various publications confirm. Little, however, is reported about marine waters and shores of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. This poster presents the results of a privately funded citizen science observation to scan remote beaches along the Northwest Passage for marine litter pollution.</p><p>The observations were conducted while enjoying the 2019 Northwest Passage sailing expedition of the Tecla, a 1915 gaff-ketch herring drifter. The expedition started in Ilulissat, Greenland, on 1 August and ended in Nome, Alaska, on 18 September. After crossing Baffin Bay, the ship continued along Pond Inlet, Navy Board Inlet, Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, Peel Sound, Franklin Strait, Rea Strait, Simpson Strait, Queen Maud Gulf, Coronation Gulf, Amundsen Gulf, Beaufort Sea, Chukchi Sea and Bering Strait. The vessel anchored in the settlement harbours of Pond Inlet, Taloyoak, Gjoa Haven, Cambridge Bay and Herschel Island. In addition, Tecla’s crew made landings at remote beaches on Disko Island (Fortune Bay, Disko Fjord), Beechey Island (Union Bay), Somerset Island (Four Rivers Bay), Boothia Peninsula (Weld Harbour), King William Island (M’Clintock Bay), Jenny Lind Island, and at Kugluktuk and Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula.</p><p>Following the categorization of the OSPAR Guideline for Monitoring Marine Litter on Beaches, litter observations were conducted without penetrating the beach surfaces. Beach stretches scanned varied in length from 100-400 m. No observations were conducted at inhabited settlements or at the abandoned settlements visited on Disko Island (Nipisat) and Beechey Island (Northumberland House).</p><p>Observations on the most remote beaches found 2-5 strongly bleached or decayed items in places such as Union Bay, Four Rivers Bay, Weld Harbour, Jenny Lind Island (Queen Maud Gulf side). Landings within 15 km of local settlements (Fortune Bay, Disko Fjord, Kugluktuk, Tuktoyaktuk) or near military activity (Jenny Lind Island, bay side) showed traces of local camping, hunting or fishing activities, resulting in item counts between 7 and 29. At the lee shore spit of M’Clintock Bay, significant pollution (> 100 items: including outboard engine parts, broken ceramic, glass, clothing, decayed batteries, a crampon and a vinyl record) was found, in contrast to a near-pristine beach on the Simpson Strait side. The litter type and concentration, as well as the remains of a building and shipwrecked fishing vessel indicate that this is an abandoned settlement, possibly related to the construction of the nearby Distant Early Warning Line radar site CAM-2 of Gladman Point. DEW Line sites have long been associated with environmental disturbances.</p><p>Given the 197 beach items recorded, it can be concluded that the beaches of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, which are blocked by sea ice during most of the year, are not pristine. Truly remote places have received marine pollution for decades to centuries. Where (abandoned) settlements are at close range pollution from local activities can be discovered, while ocean currents, wind patterns, ice rafting, distance to river mouths, and flotsam, jetsam and derelict also determine the type and amount of marine litter along the Northwest Passage.</p>

scholarly journals A case Study of old-ice import and export through Peary and Sverdrup Channels in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: 1998–2005

2006 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 329-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bea Alt ◽  
Katherine Wilson ◽  
Tom Carrières
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Ice Coverage ◽  
Through Flow ◽  
Ice Conditions ◽  
Import And Export

AbstractThis case Study attempts to quantify the amount and timing of the import, export and through-flow of old ice in the Peary Channel–sverdrup Channel area of the northern Canadian Arctic Archipelago during the period 1998–2005. The Study combines quantitative weekly area-averaged ice coverage evaluations from the Canadian Ice Service (CIS) Digital Archive with detailed analysis of Radarsat imagery and ice-motion results from the CIS ice-motion algorithm. The results Show that in 1998 more than 70% of the old ice in Peary–sverdrup was lost, half by melt and export to the South and the other half by export north into the Arctic Ocean, and that no Arctic Ocean old ice was imported into Peary–sverdrup. A net import of 10% old ice was Seen in 1999, with Some indication of through-flow into Southern channels. In 2000, no net import of old ice occurred in Peary–sverdrup, but there was Significant through-flow, with evidence of old ice reaching the Northwest Passage by November. Full recovery of the old-ice regime was complete by the end of 2001. More than two-thirds of the recovery was due to the in Situ formation of Second-year ice. Conditions in the following 3 years were near normal.

DNA identification of a sailor from the 1845 Franklin northwest passage expedition

Polar Record ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas R. Stenton ◽  
Stephen Fratpietro ◽  
Anne Keenleyside ◽  
Robert W. Park
Keyword(s):  
Y Chromosome ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Dna Identification ◽  
Loss Of Life ◽  
Life Event ◽  
Northwest Passage ◽  
Dna Analyses ◽  
Archaeological Sample ◽  
History Of

Abstract The 1845 British polar expedition in search of a northwest passage through the Canadian Arctic under the command of Sir John Franklin resulted in the greatest loss of life event in the history of polar exploration. The names of the 129 officers and crew who sailed and died on the catastrophic voyage are known, but the identification of their skeletons found scattered along the route of their attempted escape is problematic. Here, we report DNA analyses from skeletal remains from King William Island, where the majority of the expedition fatalities occurred, and from a paternal descendant of a member of the expedition. A match was found between an archaeological sample and a presumed descendant sample using Y-chromosome haplotyping. We conclude that DNA and genealogical evidence confirm the identity of the remains as those of Warrant Officer John Gregory, Engineer, HMS Erebus. This is the first member of the 1845 Franklin expedition whose identity has been confirmed through DNA and genealogical analyses.

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