MONTREAL, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – A strange beeping noise
in the Arctic has Canadians puzzled. Is it marine mammals doing something weird? A foreign submarine? Collective hallucination?
A military patrol and acoustic specialists are being dispatched to
investigate, the army said Thursday.
Speculation has abounded since Inuit hunters in the village of Igloolik heard the beep several times off the Fury and Hecla Straight late last year.
Located between the Northwest Passage and Hudson Bay, this shallow strait is usually frequented by narwhals, bowhead whales, ringed seals and bearded seals.
But last year they all disappeared, according to Inuit hunters.
“There are no animals left,” said Paul Quassa, a local elected official in the Nunavut legislative assembly who believes the beep is responsible for scaring away the wildlife.
Whatever the origin, this noise “comes from the bottom of the sea” and is loud, Quassa said after going to the spot with a group of indigenous hunters who first reported hearing it.
The army dispatched in November a patrol aircraft equipped with a battery of sensors.
After an hour and a half overflight, the crew found no acoustic anomalies nor any ocean surface or subsurface contacts, Major Josee Bilodeau of Joint Task Force North told AFP.