What causes the animals to become trapped in the ice?
Most often, whales and dolphins are stranded in the ice when winds or currents shift suddenly, says Laurie Murison, executive director of the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station in New Brunswick. However, human activity that causes a lot of underwater noise might also play a role when the animals are near the edge of the ice, Murison said. “They may panic and end up in an area where the ice can close in on them,” she said. In the case of the whales trapped in the Husky Lakes in 2006, the animals often liked to feed in the lakes during the summer. The local mayor reported that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans used to help chase away the whales but had stopped doing that four or five years earlier.
