Canadian Geographic magazine
magazine / jf08

January/February 2008 issue


FEATURE

Polar vision
Paul Nicklen turns his lens on creatures whose lives depend on the shrinking ice in the arctic and antarctic
Photography by Paul Nicklen with story by Monique Roy-Sole

Photographer Paul Nicklen likes to immerse himself in his subject. For more than a decade, the 39-year-old former biologist has gained an international reputation for diving into the chilling waters of the Arctic and Antarctic to record the wildlife that dwells — and thrives — on the margin of ice and sea. At -1.5°C, the water is so cold it numbs his legs and makes his lips swell so much that he has trouble prying the regulator out of his mouth. Nicklen is usually alone underwater, often separated from the surface by a roof of ice up to three metres thick.


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Sea ice is the matrix that sustains the web of life in the polar regions, but it is melting at an alarming rate due to global warming. Although projections vary, recent forecasts suggest that within a few decades, the Arctic basin could be ice-free in summer. Such dire predictions have sent Nicklen on a mission to show the world, through his photography, how animals such as polar bears, seals and penguins need sea ice to survive.

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