Beluga Boat cam now live! And well worth watching

Click play to see the view from the live Beluga Boat cam!

Okay, we don’t just love this. We’re obsessed with seeing the belugas! And we’re grateful to Explore.org for sponsoring this web cam, which went live on July 14, 2023. Explore.org explained:

Every summer, approximately 57,000 beluga whales travel from the Arctic to the warmer waters of Manitoba’s Churchill River. This live underwater cam is situated on the Beluga Boat, which is guided by expert captains through the Churchill River Estuary.

So, get a whale’s eye view of belugas swimming, eating and nursing their calves.

If you can catch some … they are adorable! They make weird and fascinating noises, too. And they seem curious about the Beluga Boat.

Don’t see any belugas? Try this

If there aren’t any belugas near the web cam when you’re watching, try the video below. Its first 11 minutes features the best of a livestream from July 24, 2023. Also, if you keep watching, you’ll see clips from the live bear cam and more.

Belugas are sociable and can ‘talk’

According to the World Wildlife Fund:

Belugas are extremely sociable mammals that live, hunt and migrate together in pods, ranging from a few individuals to hundreds of whales.

Their bulbous forehead, called a ‘melon,’ is flexible and capable of changing shape. This allows them to make different facial expressions.

Belugas can produce a series of chirps, clicks, whistles and squeals, which give the beluga its other name, ‘the canary of the sea.’ They may sound like music or even nonsense to us, but to fellow belugas they convey important information.

Many populations of belugas migrate as the sea ice changes in the Arctic. They move south in the fall as the ice forms and then return to feed again in the spring, as the ice breaks up. They can also be found near river mouths, and sometimes even venture upriver.

And venturing upriver is apparently what the belugas featured on the Beluga Boat cam are doing.

Have fun watching!