Making WAVEs:
Whales, Ships, and an Arctic in Flux
The Arctic—the topmost region of the Earth encompassing 14.5 million square kilometres and shared by eight Arctic states as well as indigenous societies—is warming four times more quickly than anywhere else on the planet.
As the ice melts, shipping routes that were previously inaccessible for most of the year are becoming navigable year-round and, as a result, previously unbroken waters are suddenly loud with ships. Geopolitically, too, the region is increasingly central in the plans of the world’s great powers, with icebreakers eager to beat one another to the vast oil and gas reserves hidden beneath the quickly melting ice.
All of this—from global shipping via the Northwestern Passage and Bering Strait to “last gasp” cruise liners visiting the Arctic before it’s gone altogether—can place new pressures on native species of whales and the indigenous peoples who rely on them. There is, however, still time to be proactive rather than reactive—a belief that led Heriot-Watt University researcher Dr Lauren McWhinnie to launch the WAVE Project.
What is the WAVE Project?
“WAVE is about working with our industry collaborators, HX Expeditions, to capture data on which areas in the Arctic are important to whales and where they're likely to be interacting with vessels,” Lauren tells me. “We know that whales can be hugely impacted by vessel traffic, from being struck to being affected by the underwater noise radiated by ships (whales use sound as a primary sense).”
Harm or displacement of whales isn’t just bad for the animals themselves; the world’s indigenous Arctic communities, including the Inuit and the Sami, rely on marine mammals to feed themselves during the long, harsh winters. Furthermore, many species of Arctic whales are what Lauren describes as “canaries in the coalmine—when something goes wrong with them it’s usually a good indicator that things are going wrong further down the food chain: fish decline, for instance, or the degradation of the wider marine ecosystem.”
WAVE’s objective is to collect data that will help the team better understand the potential impact of Arctic vessels, including the risk of ship collisions and noise disruption for both Arctic whales and the communities and ecosystems that rely on them. Then, freshly armed with this information, the researchers hope to influence Arctic marine management and conservation measures as well as the processes and policies of the maritime industry.
“WAVE is about working with our industry collaborators, HX Expeditions, to capture data on which areas in the Arctic are important to whales.”
Dr Lauren McWhinnie
The MS Fram, an HX expedition cruise ship, sails by an iceberg in the Arctic Circle.
HX Expeditions
Lauren and her fellow researchers are recently returned from their initial pilot survey aboard MS Fram, one of HX’s ships. HX, the world's oldest global polar expedition company, has been extremely supportive of the work being undertaken by the WAVE Project, providing both funding through their HX Foundation charity grant and donated spaces onboard their vessels.
“They’ve been such a breath of fresh air to work with,” Lauren tells me. “When I’m on their ships, they have me give lectures about the impacts of vessels to the guests and haven’t shied away from recognising the potential impacts of tourism in remote regions. They want to lead the way by supporting science, exploring ways to reduce their impact, and championing the introduction of best practices for their industry.”
“They want to lead the way by supporting science, exploring ways to reduce their impact, and championing the introduction of best practices for their industry.”
Dr Lauren McWhinnie
“This is a region undergoing significant change."
Dr Lauren McWhinnie
Dr Lauren McWhinnie and MSc student Alanna Frayne.
The Voyage So Far
The impacts of a changing Arctic are already visible. “Our ship sailed a route where, the previous year, they had spotted almost 50 polar bears and 200 narwhals—a lot of biological activity. And yet, when we surveyed these same areas this year, there was almost no life. No sea birds, no seals—nothing. It was like a dead zone. Whilst this is not uncommon in the vastness of the Arctic, it does emphasise that this is a region undergoing significant change.”
Observations like these indicate the urgency of the WAVE Project and research like it and, thankfully, the project has attracted several partners. Lauren is also involved in an official Arctic Council project (co-led by colleagues from Transport Canada) that aims to map whale watching across the Arctic region, and has now received funding from Heriot-Watt University, the UK Research and Innovation funding body’s Natural Environment Research Council, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, and, of course, the HX Foundation, amongst others.
With the pilot survey complete, Lauren and WAVE’s head of development, Sophie Cox of Heriot-Watt’s GRID team, have recently set sail on their first proper research voyage. “We’ve got three surveys lined up this year,” Lauren told me in May 2025. “We will be conducting surveys around Svalbard next month, then the Northwest Passage (Alaska through Arctic Canada to the West Coast of Greenland), and then we’ll be going from Iceland across the Denmark Strait to survey the East Coast of Greenland.”
The Future
And how does the future of this research—and the Arctic—look? The former at least looks promising: while WAVE’s current priority is to establish baseline geospatial data regarding shipping routes, whale-vessel interactions, and the presence and movements of Arctic whales (which are thought to be changing), the next steps will be “to understand where impacts are occurring and the nature and severity of those impacts. From there, we can explore means and methods to actually reduce some of these pressures on the whales that are being impacted.”
As for the Arctic, the future is uncertain. Escalating political tensions, rapid industrialisation, and a quickly changing environment all place pressure on research and intensify the need for evidence-based decisions and decisive actions if this unique northern region is to be protected. Heriot-Watt University, with its campaign commitment to both sustainability and collaborating with business and industry partners (exemplified by the Drive Sustainability and Innovate with Business and Industry campaign themes, which look to empower the iNetZ+, Lyell Centre for Marine Sciences, and Sustainability Hub initiatives), is uniquely well placed to make meaningful contributions.
But, in the meantime: bon voyage, Lauren and Sophie!
“Whales are canaries in the coalmine—when something goes wrong with them, it’s usually a good indicator that things are going wrong further down the food chain.”
Dr Lauren McWhinnie
To learn more about the WAVE Project, please visit www.wave-arcticwhales.com. If you would like to discuss supporting the project, please contact Sophie Cox at s.cox@hw.ac.uk.
