Uncovering the tooth

Thanks to drone photography, WWF-supported researchers captured a surprising narwhal behaviour for the first time. In an amazing video, a male narwhal appears to use his tusk to hit and stun fish.

Toes tell a tale

WWF supported a groundbreaking project to identify individual polar bears from the DNA in their snowy footprints. This work could make polar bear research less expensive and invasive in the future.

Read more

Securing a future for polar bears

The first-ever ministerial forum on polar bear conservation, held in Moscow, resulted in major commitments from all five polar bear countries - Canada, Russia, Norway, Greenland and the US - to tackle polar bear research and management, as well as climate change. WWF's support made the Forum possible.

Sailing to Siku

In July and August 2012, scientists and WWF experts explored the Last Ice Area -- the northwest coast of Greenland and Canada’s High Arctic Islands. Along the way, we conducted research and spoke with local communities to fill in the knowledge gaps about this remote area.

• Follow the voyage
• About the Last Ice Area

Oil and water

Thanks in part to WWF research and advocacy, Bristol Bay in Alaska
(a major fishery and ecological resource) is taken off the US government’s
five year plan for oil leasing. The US government also announced the creation
of a national oceans policy that will among other things identify and protect
remarkable places in the offshore area of Alaska.

Learn about Bristol Bay at WWF-United States

A home for bowheads

In a campaign spanning 26 years, WWF-Canada worked with the Inuit community of Clyde River to create Canada’s first national Marine Wildlife Area.

Also known as Niginganiq, this extensive area off the coast of Baffin Island, Nunavut, became a sanctuary for bowhead whales in 2008.

Read more about Niginganiq

Watching for the umkys

The Umky (polar bear) Patrol was developed by people in Vankarem (a village on the Arctic shores of Chukotka, Russia) and WWF.

The patrol works to prevent deadly encounters between polar bears and people. Polar bears are increasingly common in some communities, a development that some ascribe to the fact that the bears have less access to their normal sea ice habitat in the Arctic summer. The patrols have spread to other communities in Russia, and also to North America.

More about the Umky Patrol

Keeping the Kamchatka salmon

WWF launched an ambitious salmon conservation program to address the complex challenges facing the salmon populations along the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The initiative helps conserve five species of Pacific salmon and the spawning grounds for one quarter of all Pacific wild salmon.

The Kamchatka Salmon Conservation Initiative (WWF-US)

Tracking Ringed Seals

The ringed seal is a key species in the Arctic – it is the most numerous and
widespread of all the seal species. WWF supported a four-year project that
used satellite tagging to track the seals’ travelling patterns, diving depths and
time spent on the surface. Participants in the project included Inuvialuit hunters
and trappers’ organizations and the Canadian Department of Fisheries
and Oceans.

Fishing for sustainability

WWF co-founded the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) to encourage sustainable fishing practices. Increasing numbers of fisheries around the Arctic – in Norway, Alaska, and Russia – are now MSC certified.

Visit the MSC site

Great Arctic Reserve

With the help of WWF, Russia set aside 42,000 km² of the Taimyr Peninsula,
including a Kara Sea archipelago, as the Great Arctic Reserve. WWF not only helped fund the reserve, but also helped organize three important scientific expeditions that contributed to establishing the ecological importance of the region.

More about the Great Arctic Reserve

WWF's Arctic Programme is born

Although WWF had already been undertaking projects in the Arctic, the creation of the Global Arctic Programme brought a new circumarctic focus to WWF’s work just as the eight Arctic countries and Arctic Indigenous peoples were joining together in the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy, the forerunner of the Arctic Council.

More on the beginnings of the GAP