Canada
Herschel Island
An Arctic whaling station collapsing into the thawing permafrost of the Beaufort Sea.
The whaling station buildings on Herschel Island are sinking. Permafrost that held them upright for a century is thawing, and the walls tilt incrementally seaward each summer. Bowhead whale bones litter the shore like driftwood. The Arctic silence is absolute.
Herschel Island (Qikiqtaruk in Inuvialuktun) sits in the Beaufort Sea off the Yukon's north coast, a Territorial Park accessible only by charter boat from Herschel Bay. In the 1890s, American whalers established a wintering station here, and the surviving buildings are now collapsing into the warming permafrost — a visible monument to climate change. Inuvialuit families still use the island as a seasonal hunting and fishing camp, maintaining a connection that predates European contact by millennia. There are no facilities — visitors camp, bring all supplies, and share the island with grizzly bears and Arctic foxes.
Solo
Herschel Island is for the solo traveller who seeks extremes — the remoteness, the climate-change narrative, and the collapsing whaling station create an experience that is haunting and unforgettable.
- The whaling station buildings are sinking into the permafrost as the Arctic warms — a visible monument to climate change.
- Bowhead whale bones litter the shore, remnants of the 19th-century American whaling fleet that wintered here.
- Inuvialuit families still use the island as a seasonal hunting and fishing camp, as they have for centuries.
- The isolation is absolute — you arrive by charter boat from Herschel Bay, and there are no facilities on the island.
Whatever the Inuvialuit guides cook over driftwood on the beach — char, caribou, or goose.
Muktuk (beluga whale skin and blubber) shared at camp — a traditional Inuvialuit delicacy.
Arctic berries and tea brewed on a camp stove while watching for beluga whales offshore.
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