Whale Watching Worldwide

Canadian Arctic ‐ Manitoba, Nunavut and Baffin Island
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR Number of
operators
Direct
expenditure
Indirect
expenditure
Total
expenditure
1998 6,700 N/A 10 $1,268,000 $1,814,000 $3,082,000
2008 4,800 ‐3.3% 28 $2,921,000 $1,068,000 $3,989,000
Whale Watch Locations:
01: Churchill, Manitoba
02: Pond Inlet, Nunavut
03: Baffin Island
A range of tour operators offers trips that encounter cetaceans over
this vast area. Trips range from locally organised, informal boat
trips, to fully‐catered, multi‐day trips including helicopter flights.
These trips vary in terms of dedication to whale watching and only
broad estimates have been possible from survey responses and
operators’ promotional material. The most concentrated cetacean
watching occurs in Manitoba, with various other locations around
the Arctic.
Churchill, Manitoba, on the shores of Hudson Bay, is primarily known as a place to watch polar bears;
however, it is also the summer home of a large population of belugas. Two operators offer boat tours to see
and listen to belugas through hydrophones. Particularly enthusiastic beluga watchers can even don dry suits
and snorkel with the animals in the icy waters. Basic tickets cost around $70 while snorkelling with belugas
costs around $116.
Churchill operators are small, family‐run businesses, often with other nature tour options within their
business. One main operator has a 30‐passenger vessel, while smaller craft such as inflatables and kayaks
are also used. Other opportunities for beluga watching can be found in various parts of the territory of
Nunavut much farther north.
Several operators have begun offering exciting guided trips to northern Baffin Island to watch narwhals, the
‘unicorns of the sea’. Male narwhals have a long tusk, actually an incisor, projecting from their jaws, which
can be up to three meters long. The trips also encounter seals and occasionally orcas and bowhead whales.
Tickets cost over $6000 without airfares. Narwhal trips are mainly based out of Pond Inlet, Nunavut.
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