Sea Ice

Sea ice itself as an ecological structure: a solid platform for hauling out, breathing holes, hunting edges. Found in both the Arctic and the Antarctic — not simply another way of saying "cold sea", but a distinct physical habitat that certain species depend on directly.

Morse sur la banquise du parc national arctique russe
Low danger

Walrus

Odobenus rosmarus

Walrus

Recognisable by its long tusks, used to haul itself out of the water and assert its social rank, it locates prey buried in the sediment using extremely fine sensory whiskers.

🌊 080 m

  • Locates buried prey using hundreds of sensory whiskers
  • Uses its tusks like ice axes to haul itself out of the water onto the pack ice
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Narval dans l'Arctique russe
Harmless

Narwhal

Monodon monoceros

Narwhal

Nicknamed "the unicorn of the sea", this Arctic whale carries a long spiralled tusk that long fuelled the unicorn myth in Europe.

🌊 0800 m

  • Its spiralled tusk, actually a tooth, can exceed 2.5 metres in length
  • Dives up to 800 m on a single breath to hunt, one of the deepest dives known in a marine mammal
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Ours polaire sur la banquise en Alaska
High danger

Polar bear

Ursus maritimus

Polar bear

Revered and feared as Nanuq in Inuit mythology, where it is sometimes described as an almost-human spiritual ancestor for its intelligence, it is also classified as a marine mammal, given how much its life depends on sea ice and its swimming ability.

🌊 05 m

  • Can smell a seal through more than a metre of compacted snow and ice
  • Classified as a marine mammal: able to swim continuously for over 100 km in open sea
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Phoque léopard près de la banquise antarctique
Moderate danger

Leopard seal

Hydrurga leptonyx

Leopard seal

Antarctica's top predator after the orca, recognisable by its reptilian head and immense jaw, able to hunt both penguins and other seals.

🌊 0300 m

  • Can both filter krill and hunt large prey such as a penguin or a young seal
  • One of the few seals known to actively prey on other seals
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