![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/johnny-mamgark-september-2025.jpg\")
Johnny Mamgark, originally from Arviat, Nunavut, is seen outside his home in Winnipeg, where he now lives. Hunting beluga whales is ‘part of our culture’ in the North, he says. (Jaison Empson\/CBC)<\/p>\nProposals to expand the Port of Churchill in northern Manitoba\u00a0could bring an increase in shipping traffic and commercial activity \u2014 and some experts suggest that could affect\u00a0the behaviour of the whales that are not only a major draw\u00a0in the area’s nearly\u00a0$100-million tourism industry, but\u00a0an important food source for some in the North.<\/p>\n
Johnny Mamgark remembers first hunting beluga whales along the Hudson Bay coastline with his father as early as 13 or 14 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s part of our culture; we live on it,” said Mamgark.<\/p>\n
“Living up north is so expensive, the food we buy is so expensive \u2014 that’s why we need to hunt to survive up north.”<\/p>\n
Mamgark, who now lives in Winnipeg, is Inuk and\u00a0grew up in Arviat, Nunavut \u2014 a small Inuit community along the western coast\u00a0of Hudson\u00a0Bay, about 260 kilometres as the crow flies north of Churchill.<\/p>\n
He’s worried more shipping and marine traffic around the Port of Churchill would disrupt the beluga whale population in the area where his family and ancestors have hunted them for centuries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnny Mamgark, originally from Arviat, Nunavut, is seen outside his home in Winnipeg, where he now lives. Hunting beluga whales is ‘part of our culture’ in the North, he says. (Jaison Empson\/CBC)<\/p>\n
“We want people to understand that we don’t just kill animals, we’re feeding ourselves and putting food on our table,” said Mamgark.<\/p>\n
Manitoba Premier\u00a0Wab Kinew has promoted the idea<\/a> of\u00a0a new or expanded port along the province’s coastline as part of\u00a0a major northern trade corridor that could ship commodities like oil,\u00a0liquefied natural gas or hydrogen\u00a0to European markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Port of Churchill, which is one of Canada’s northernmost deepwater ports and has a brief operational window each summer, is owned and operated by Arctic Gateway Group, a partnership of dozens of First Nations and Hudson Bay communities. It’s\u00a0the only deepwater port with Arctic Ocean access in North America<\/a>\u00a0that’s also accessible by rail.<\/p>\n Plans for a port expansion\u00a0didn’t make the cut in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first round\u00a0of five major\u00a0“nation-building” infrastructure\u00a0projects, but\u00a0upgrades\u00a0are expected to be considered for the next wave<\/a>.<\/p>\n Until then, some community leaders are trying to figure out how the Arctic wildlife population could coexist with a major increase in marine traffic and commercial activity.<\/p>\n Whales depend on sound<\/p>\n The beluga population in the western Hudson Bay is estimated at 55,000<\/a>, with thousands congregating in the Nelson, Churchill, and Seal River estuaries during the summer months, according to the conservation group Oceans North.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n They’re known to mingle with paddling tourists in the Churchill estuary\u00a0\u2014 part of a tourism industry in Churchill that\u00a0contributes an estimated $99 million to Manitoba’s\u00a0GDP, according to Travel Manitoba<\/a>.<\/p>\n Roughly 30 per cent of those tourists are drawn to Churchill specifically for the belugas, says Brendan McEwan, president of the Churchill Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n “The amount of times that a beluga whale will create excitement, but also make somebody laugh, is a really interesting thing about the species,” said McEwan.<\/p>\n But the whales\u00a0don’t take as kindly to noisy ships.<\/p>\n Marianne Marcoux, a research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada,\u00a0says that noise presents problems for belugas,\u00a0which\u00a0depend on sound for basic functions like\u00a0detecting their predator, killer whales<\/a>.<\/p>\n The low frequency sound from ships can travel long distances,\u00a0especially in quiet Arctic waters,\u00a0making it very difficult for belugas to communicate with one another, said Marcoux.<\/p>\n “That sound can mask the vocalization of a whale and the sounds from other whales that you want to listen to,” said Marcoux.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It’s not just noise at the port\u00a0\u2014\u00a0there’s going to be noise all around the shipping lane,” she said. “That’s concerning.”<\/p>\n A 1999 study<\/a> published in the academic journal\u00a0Marine Mammal Science found that in the St. Lawrence river estuary, beluga whales decreased their calling rates as ships approached.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another study<\/a> published in the Canadian Bulletin of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences in the 1980s found\u00a0beluga whales were “extraordinarily sensitive” to shipping activity in the High Arctic during the spring, producing “alarm calls” and rapid movements when ships were within a 40 to 55-kilometre\u00a0radius.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The Churchill estuary is quite short and quite narrow, so there you’re going to get lots of resonance and lots of noise,” said Stephen Petersen, the director of conservation and research at the Assiniboine Park Conservancy in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n Estuaries offer a lot of benefits to beluga whales, Petersen said \u2014 the warmer water is more suitable for giving birth, there’s a large food source, and killer whales are less likely to follow them into shallower waters.\u00a0<\/p>\n While he doesn’t know for sure what would\u00a0happen if ship traffic increases, his best guess is that the whales\u00a0will leave the area if it becomes too noisy.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is one reason he and his colleagues started “Beluga Bits<\/a>” \u2014 a\u00a0citizen-based, non-invasive project that aims to\u00a0monitor and track beluga whales around Churchill.<\/p>\n The project could help encourage Churchill authorities to limit the impact of marine traffic on belugas during certain times of year,\u00a0potentially opening a path to coexistence with increased shipping, said Petersen.<\/p>\n The chamber’s McEwan\u00a0said there are\u00a0conversations happening right now in Churchill around “how to embrace more economic opportunity, while safeguarding the region’s unique ecosystem and Indigenous ways of life.”<\/p>\n “We want to welcome increased economic development, development that our economy needs,” he said.<\/p>\n “But now is the time to ensure that we’re taking the necessary steps and working on a plan to ensure that all industries are viable going forward, and that our Indigenous cultures and our species and environment are taken care of.”<\/p>\n Protected area proposal<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/port-of-churchill-with-beluga-whale.JPG\")
A beluga whale surfaces for air near the Port of Churchill earlier this month. Noise presents problems for the whales, which depend on sound for basic functions like detecting predators, says Marianne Marcoux, a research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. (Darren Bernhardt\/CBC)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/stephen-petersen.jpg\")
Stephen Petersen, the director of conservation and research at the Assiniboine Park Conservancy in Winnipeg, says he doesn’t know for sure what would happen if ship traffic increases, but his best guess is that the whales will leave the area if it becomes too noisy. (Tyson Koschik\/CBC)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/churchill-manitoba-sign-stock-file-image-sept-2025.JPG\")
Conversations are underway in Churchill around ‘how to embrace more economic opportunity, while safeguarding the region’s unique ecosystem,’ says Churchill Chamber of Commerce president Brendan McEwan. (Darren Bernhardt\/CBC)<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/christopher-debicki.jpeg\")
Christopher Debicki, vice-president of policy dDevelopment with Oceans North, says efforts are underway to protect the ecosystem along the western Hudson Bay coastline is by designating it a national marine conservation area. (Kevin Nepitabo\/CBC)<\/p>\n