Arctic Ocean
The smallest and coldest of the oceans, covered in sea ice, home to the narwhal and the great polar mammals.
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.
🌊 0–80 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
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.
🌊 0–800 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
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.
🌊 0–5 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