Another awesome Beluga Boarding season
How do I adequately describe the incredible beluga and polar bear encounters we enjoyed over five weeks in Churchill’s subarctic summer? You really have to be there to understand how friendly and curious the belugas can be, not mention how majestic the bears are, but I have included a small portfolio of some of the best moments from this summer.
The belugas start arriving in the Churchill area in June, so there were plenty around by mid July when we started running our beluga boarding trips. Other than a few weather days, we had consistent beluga action until we wrapped up the season in mid August.
The importance of the Churchill River Estuary
The belugas converge on Churchill to feed on Capelin (a small silver fish like a sardine). They also rub themselves on the shallow rocks to moult. When they first arrive they look quite scruffy and scarred up, but after the moult they are brand new belugas.
Baby Belugas
Pregnant belugas give birth in this area so it’s not uncommon to see tiny purplish grey little peanuts swimming along with their mother’s.
Who’s watching who?
We do not use any attractants to lure the belugas to our boats. Some belugas kept their distance, but others were incredibly curious. The curious ones activity went out of their way to approach the mat to look at the funny humans being towed along on the beluga board.
Playful Belugas
Once they’d had a good look, some belugas became even more playful, nibbling our camera’s dome ports which led to some amazing images and videos!
So many belugas!
But the most impressive encounters occurred whenever an entire family would closely follow us, so all we could see underwater was wall to wall smiling belugas. Simply fantastic!
Summer Polar Bears
The beluga encounters are only possible at high tide, so after lunch we would jump in our van and explore the tundra.
Of course, the highlight on our drives were polar bears and this summer they were surprisingly abundant. One day we encountered 10 bears on a single drive. Not all of them were close encounters, but still great to see so many.
Polar Bear moms and cubs nursing
On one occasion we found six bears in the same spot. Polar bears tend to be solitary animals, but this was two mothers with two cubs each, so they did not pose much of a threat to each other.
The next day we watched a mother polar bear nursing her cubs. Such a precious moment!
Foxes on the Tundra
Besides the bears, we found a nice fox den with five foxes in residence. The cubs were almost fully grown and extremely playful and trusting, walking right up to us as we snapped away.
Barren Ground Caribou
We also saw some Barren Ground Caribou. The main herd lives further east, but for a couple of weeks we had a few stragglers hanging out near Bird Cove; one of the spots we often explore to find polar bears.
Arctic Hares
The other animal we ran into occasionally was the arctic hare. it’s their nature to freeze in an attempt to hide in plain sight , so we were able to get pretty close for some nice images.
Shore Birds Galore!
Hudson Bay is an important pit stop for many migrating birds. Other than bald eagles, the avian species are mostly seabirds including arctic terns, Pacific loons, parasitic yaegers, whimbrels, Hudsonian gotwits and many, many more.
Beluga Boarding 2027-2028
We hope that you join one of our beluga boarding trips to see these incredibly friendly whales in their natural habitat. We started running beluga trips more than a decade ago. Since then, other tour companies have tried to create a similar product, but we feel we offer the best encounters. We only take four guests on each zodiac (other companies take six or more) so on our trip you’ll get way more time snorkeling on the mat with belugas, and way less time waiting for your turn. We also spend way more time on the tundra looking for wildlife because thats what we’re all about.
2027 is full at the moment (although we sometimes get cancellations) and 2028 is filling fast, so if you want to reserve your spots or if you would like an info package about our awesome Beluga Boarding Tour, please visit our beluga boarding trip page or drop us a line: info@bigfishexpeditions.com
