#polar-bears

#polar-bears

Growing up in Canada, I always considered the Arctic part of my backyard, a part of the country's identity and history. So I was overjoyed several years ago when I got what I considered a dream assignment: a week-long voyage through the fabled Northwest Passage, a series of waterways high above the Arctic Circle. I was aboard the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, a hulking Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker affectionately known by the crew as simply the Louis.

I was immediately seduced by the silence and the immense landscape. There's something beautiful about it: You feel like a very small person, you're made vulnerable, and you realize you don't mean that much in the world. It was the start of winter and the temperature was 20 degrees below zero, but I couldn't really feel the cold because I was so excited to be part of this journey that I forgot about everything else.

Taking a blood sample from a polar bear involves shooting it with a sedative dart from a helicopter, approaching cautiously, and performing delicate surgeries on the ice.