Arctic Kingdom: Life at the Edge Page #4

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these delicate drifters are

miracles of survival

wrapped in enchanting beauty

But to live here, they must also kill

A jelly trails its long tentacles

snaring a copepod

then reeling it in to its death

These tiny hunters float in a world

of their own

unaware of the leviathan that could

devour their entire universe

The bowhead sweeps through the water

like a living trawl net

Between the cavernous jaws

dark sheets called baleen filter

the water

collecting thousands of

small creatures

Its enormous white tongue will

scrape the baleen clean

harvesting the sea one giant

mouthful at a time

The sun is winning control of the ice

and the surface pools with melt water

Temperatures now reach a balmy

Dripping water measures the

fleeting season

the sound of summer ticking away

Fresh leads break into the

remaining ice

The Arctic's most intriguing creature

moves in from the sea

The narwhal - with its ivory tusk

a living tooth up to ten feet long

The whales converge along

the narrow highway

This is what Olyuk has been

looking for

Hunting is at the heart of

Inuit culture

a way of life and a skill still

passed down from father to son

It's a proud link to the past

and the only way to live off the

land in the Arctic

Today, the Inuit are still allowed

to hunt whales

but their take is strictly controlled

Yet Olyuk remembers the not

so distant days

when hunting meant the difference

between life and death

They have landed a female only males

have a tusk

Whale skin is especially nutritious

high in vitamin C

Without such a diet

the Inuit would have suffered

from the scurvy

which plagued many Arctic expeditions

Eaten raw, it's a delicacy

called "muktuk."

In the still twilight of midnight

the narwhals joust a slow

stately ritual of mythic beasts

The purpose of their strange single

tusk remains a mystery

Like the peacock's tail and

the lion's mane

it may serve as a banner of

male prowess

It could be a weapon

But it's the stuff of legend

In the Middle Ages

the tusks were sold as unicorn horns

for ten times their weight in gold

The sea ice is flooded now

although beneath the water

the ice is still several feet thick

Out on the melting surface

an abandoned ringed seal has

lost her bearings

She has wandered away from

her breathing hole

and cannot find her way back

Now, she is trapped above the ice an

easy target

for a hungry polar bear

And if she cannot return to

the sea beneath her

she will starve

The young seal is now exhausted

but luck finally leads her to a hole

in the ice

She is safe, but now she's in

unknown territory

a long way from her familiar network

of breathing holes

She won't stray far for a while

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