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Beluga ballet Churchill is not just the polar bear capital of the world, it is also the site of an annual spectacle of whale song and dance By Glen Petrie with photography by Mike Macri Like so many before me, I came to Churchill, Man., in search of an intimate encounter with a great white mammal. As the polar bear capital of the world, Churchill is the place where you can look one of the Earth's most fearsome predators in the eye without losing your head (from the safety of a Tundra Buggy) as the bears migrate each autumn from the pack ice of Hudson Bay to their denning sites south of town. But there are few polar bears in Churchill in August. While the Lords of the Arctic conserve their energy, the Canaries of the Sea come out to play and I was here to cavort with the charmingly friendly belugas in Hudson Bay. Roughly 57,000 beluga whales live in western Hudson Bay, and as many as 3,000 summer in the Churchill River estuary, where they moult and feed on caplin. A visitor need only stand on the rocky shore — outcrops of Precambrian shield known as Churchill quartzite — to see them rolling in the distance like schools of fish. A couple of tour operators have sprung up to help visitors see, hear and even swim with these curious and delightful cetaceans. Advertisement My first encounter with the Hudson Bay belugas came in a local tour boat powered by jets of water rather than a propeller, to avoid injuring the whales, and equipped with a hydrophone wired to on-board speakers that provided an amplified concert of whale songs. Displaying a broad range of sounds, more than nearly any other whale species, the beluga has earned its "sea canary" nickname. While the boat idled among the frolicking whales, we were entertained by a surprisingly diverse repertoire of chirps and cries. For related stories, facts and figures, visit CG's Exploration Online To comment on this issue, e-mail editor@canadiangeographic.ca FOR THE REST OF THIS STORY BUY THIS ISSUE OR SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE 22%! OR VISIT YOUR LOCAL NEWSSTAND FOR THE MARCH/APRIL ISSUE OF CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC.