5. Exploration and exploitation

‘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.

Correlation of Mercury Occurrence with Age, Elemental Composition, and Life History in Sea-Run Food Fish from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago’s Lower Northwest Passage

As mercury emissions continue and climate-mediated permafrost thaw increases the burden of this contaminant in northern waters, Inuit from a Northwest passage community in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago pressed for an assessment of their subsistence catches. Sea-run salmonids (n = 537) comprising Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus), lake trout (S. namaycush), lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), and cisco (C. autumnalis, C. sardinella) were analyzed for muscle mercury. Methylmercury is a neurotoxin and bioaccumulated with fish age, but other factors including selenium and other elements, diet and trophic level as assessed by stable isotopes of nitrogen (δ15N) and carbon (δ13C), as well as growth rate, condition, and geographic origin, also contributed depending on the species, even though all the fish shared a similar anadromous or sea-run life history. Although mean mercury concentrations for most of the species were ~0.09 µg·g−1 wet weight (ww), below the levels described in several jurisdictions for subsistence fisheries (0.2 µg·g−1 ww), 70% of lake trout were above this guideline (0.35 µg·g−1 ww), and 19% exceeded the 2.5-fold higher levels for commercial sale. We thus urge the development of consumption advisories for lake trout for the protection of pregnant women and young children and that additionally, periodic community-based monitoring be initiated.

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

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.

Opening an Arctic Escape Route: The Bellot Strait Expedition

During the second half of the 1950s, Canadian and American vessels surged into the North American Arctic to establish military installations and to chart northern waters. This article narrates the expeditions by the eastern and western units of the Bellot Strait hydrographic survey group in 1957, explaining how these “modern explorers” grappled with unpredictable ice conditions, weather, and extreme isolation to chart a usable Northwest Passage for deep-draft ships. The story also serves as a reminder of the enduring history of US Coast Guard and Navy operations in Canada’s Arctic waters in collaboration with their Canadian counterparts. Au cours de la deuxième moitié des années 1950, des navires canadiens et américains ont envahi l’Arctique nord-américain pour y établir des installations militaires et cartographier les eaux du Nord. Le présent article traite des expéditions des unités est et ouest du groupe de levés hydrographiques du détroit de Bellot en 1957 et explique comment ces « explorateurs modernes » ont été confrontés à des états de glace imprévisibles, à des conditions météorologiques et à un isolement extrême en traçant un passage du Nord-Ouest utilisable pour les navires à forts tirants d’eau. Le récit nous rappelle également l’histoire durable des opérations de la Garde côtière et de la Marine américaines dans les eaux arctiques du Canada en collaboration avec leurs homologues canadiens.

The role of cultural heritage in the geopolitics of the Arctic: the example of Franklin’s lost expedition

Sir John Franklin’s ships departed from Greenhithe port in Great Britain (1845) with the aim of discovering the Northwest Passage in what is now Canada. During their journey, both ships got stuck in ice near King William Island and eventually sank. Over time, searches were held in order to find both wrecks. More recently, under the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper (2006–2015) there was renewed interest regarding what is now referred to as Franklin’s lost expedition. Searches resumed and narratives were formed regarding the importance of this expedition for Canadian identity. This article is embedded in a sociocultural perspective and will examine the role that cultural heritage can play in the geopolitics of the Arctic while highlighting the process of ‘patrimonialization’ that the Franklin’s lost expedition has undergone during Harper’s term in office. Based on discourse analysis, it brings out the main narratives that surrounded the modern searches of Franklin’s wrecks which are related to history, national historic sites, mystery, diversity, importance of Inuit knowledge and information gathering. This article demonstrates that these narratives were intended to form a new Canadian northern identity and to assert Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic.