Ryan: Well this looks like a jolly place. I'm sorry I didn't bring my bathing suit.

Morgan: I wouldn't jump in there if I were you. Looks like pretty strong currents - not to mention all that ice water.

Ryan: Okay, I'm convinced. But what's so special about a big hole in the ice?

Inukshuk: Very special. Many species of arctic wildlife couldn't live without these polynyas.

Ryan: These what?

Inukshuk: Polynyas. Areas of water that stay open all winter. In a sea locked in ice for eight months, polynyas offer whales and seals a place to breathe. They also provide critical feeding areas for many kinds of sea ducks, like the common eiders you can see bobbing out there right now.

Morgan: Ah yes! Good old mitiit. I bet the locals are happy to see these ducks. Their feathers make great parkas. Good eating too!

Inukshuk: That's correct. The people of nearby Sanikiluaq, in the Belcher Islands of Hudson Bay, harvest hundreds of these birds and their eggs for food. And their eiderdown parkas and bedcovers are shipped all over the world.

Ryan: I could use one of those fluffy parkas right now! Br-r-r! So, these Polly-annas...

Inukshuk: Polynyas, please!

Ryan: Right. These...polynyas, are they sort of like an oasis of open water in a land of ice, just like lonely pools of water in a desert? Like, no water, no camels?

Inukshuk: Exactly. No polynyas, no access to food, no ducks.

Morgan: So what keeps the ice open? Is it all that heat from climate change?

Inukshuk: It's currents actually, strong tidal currents that swirl through the Belcher Islands. Global warming has little to do with it. In fact, a few years ago, just the opposite happened: a sudden cooling of the climate caused some polynyas in this region to shrink and disappear. Tens of thousands of ducks were choked off from their normal food supply and starved.

Morgan: I remember reading about that in News North. Eider ducks were landing on the rooftops and among tied-up dog teams in Sanikiluaq. Why didn't they just fly south like all other northern ducks and geese?

Inukshuk: These particular birds have become so dependent on polynyas for winter food they don't know how to migrate. In fact, this peculiar sedentary habit is enshrined in their scientific name, Somateria mollissima sedentaria - as in 'sedentary', not moving around.

Ryan: Ah yes! Good old Somateria mollissima sedentaria! (laughing) Fine-feathered couch potatoes of the Arctic.

Morgan: Very funny!

Ryan: But wait a minute, you said the climate suddenly cooled. I thought things were heating up.

Inukshuk: On a global scale, yes. Things are heating up. But parts of the eastern Arctic are actually cooling down. What triggered severe cooling here - and ultimately, the death of many ducks - was the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines.

Ryan: I don't get it. How could a volcano half way around the world get these ducks in a flap?

Inukshuk: It's a small planet, friend. That's what these researchers are trying to understand.

Morgan: They sure know how to dress for the weather out here.

Inukshuk: Caribou skin pants and eiderdown parkas. Fabricated locally, of course. Nothing but the best for these researchers who spend many hours out in the cold. They're studying everything from the ocean bottom to the upper atmosphere, to try to understand how that distant volcano may have changed this whole ecosystem.

Morgan: Like when the dinosaurs packed it in?

Inukshuk: That was likely triggered by a giant meteor, not a volcano. It's the same idea - though not nearly so catastrophic. Thick dust and ash fill the sky. The climate cools. Certain animals, like dinosaurs and eider ducks, provide a valuable biological indicator to measure the impacts of climate change - whether from natural or human causes.

Ryan: (shivering) I thought it seemed especially cold out here!

Inukshuk: Lucky for these ducks, the cold snap only lasted a couple of winters. The polynyas are back and the duck populations seem healthy once again. No one knows what lies ahead in the next chapter of this region's climate story. Whether this part of the world gets warmer or colder remains a mystery. But you can be sure these scientists and the people of Sanikiluaq will be keeping a close eye on these ducks for early clues to that mystery.

Ryan: (still shivering) I don't know if I'm cut out for that kind of research. At least those ducks are wearing built-in eiderdown suits to keep warm.

Morgan: Hey, all seasons are good - that is if you know how to dress for them!

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