Environmental row over ‘last chance tourism’ in Canada’s melting Arctic

Critics say cruise ships scare away the wildlife they come to see, leaving fewer animals to hunt and residents even more dependent on tourism. Photograph: Berta Vicente Salas/Ruido Photo

An increase in “last chance tourism” in Canada’s melting Arctic is causing a row between those who warn of the devastation it is causing to the environment and those who rely on income from tourists to survive as hunting becomes increasingly difficult.

Pond Inlet, a village of about 1,600 mostly Inuit people in the territory of Nunavut, received about 3,000 tourists in 2023. Each paid about $15,000 to travel on one of the 25 cruise ships that docked in the village harbour.