On thin ice: Who “owns” the Arctic?

The ship’s searchlight pencils its beam from one suspect cake of ice to the next. The Arctic night deepens its blues and, at the horizon, flares orange across the waters of Victoria Strait, in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region, as one of Canada’s newest Arctic and offshore patrol ships makes its way south. Summer is waning across the Northwest Passage, the storied sea route linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and with it, the Royal Canadian Navy’s latest northern sovereignty patrol, a two-month deployment that will take HMCS Margaret Brooke from her home port of Halifax to Greenland’s shores and on to Iqaluktuuttiaq (Cambridge Bay), Nunavut, then back again.

Old ice? New? Under the accusation of a naval searchlight, it all looks spectral, slightly spooky, caught-in-the-act. Tonight, none of it will pose any danger to navigation. I’ve joined Margaret Brooke on her inaugural deployment for a two-week visit as the $700-million vessel, rated Polar Class 5 for icebreaking, surges into the country’s North as part of the annual Operation Nanook.

It was a day all about friendship. A day about mentorship. It was a day to honour the long and storied career of acclaimed Canadian physician-scientist and deep-sea explorer Dr. Joe MacInnis.

MacInnis was joined by his most famous protégé — fellow undersea explorer James Cameron — for a daylong program of events at Canada’s Centre for Geography and Exploration, headquarters of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Cameron, who is internationally renowned for his blockbuster films but also for his feats of exploration and advocacy for the environment, travelled to Ottawa to honour the mentor who encouraged him to pursue his fascination with the deep sea.

The celebration kicked off with an hourlong fireside chat, which was streamed live online by CTV News. MacInnis and Cameron were joined by Vassy Kapelos, host of CTV’s Question Period and CTV News Channel’s Power Play, who moderated a lively discussion on the theme “the magic of mentoring.”

Plus: investigating a mysterious golden eagle flight, rescuing abandoned piping plover eggs, running North America’s largest bug farm, and more.

By Thomas LundyandLuke Faulks

Baby talk” is a nearly universal speech pattern across human cultures. People around the planet adopt different tones and speaking cadences when interacting with children — and it turns out it’s not just us that do it. New research has found that bottlenose dolphins also use a form of “baby talk” to communicate with their young.

The research team used 34 years of vocalization data to compare the signature whistles of bottlenose dolphin mothers when their calves were close to calls made when young dolphins were further away. The team found mother dolphins would change their pitch predictably based on their calves’ proximity; dolphins’ calls would reach higher and wider frequency ranges, consistently, when their calves were nearby.

The baby talk, also known as “motherese” or “child-directed communication,” is only seen in a handful of non-human species, including zebra finches and squirrel monkeys. This new research suggests that bottlenose dolphins, like humans, meet critical criteria for needing motherese; namely, long dependency on caregivers, complex social environments, and the necessity of complex vocal communication.

Check out these other upcoming trips:
- Consummate Explorer Package with Ocean Quest
- Patagonia Birds and Wildlife with Kim Gray
- New Brunswick and Grand Manan with Marlis Butcher