Vessel transits are expanding into the increasingly ice-free Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route, yet potential impacts on endemic Arctic marine mammal species are unknown. Donna Hauser's work has developed a vulnerability assessment of 80 subpopulations of seven AMM species to vessel traffic. Vulnerability scores were based on the combined influence of spatially explicit exposure to the sea routes and a suite of sensitivity variables. Over half of AMM subpopulations are exposed to open-water vessel transits in the Arctic sea routes. Our quantification of the heterogeneity of risk across AMM species provides a necessary first step towards developing best practices for maritime industries poised to advance into Arctic sea routes.

Evgeny Podolskiy collaborates with Inuit and uses sound records from northwest Greenland to learn about glaciers, glacier fjords and the endemic inhabitants of the areas such as narwhals. His passive acoustic monitoring reveals a rich, tide-modulated noise field due to ice motion, as well as the presence of narwhals near the calving front, one of the noisiest places in the ocean.