A Social Network for Sea Ice, Built by the People Who Cross It

Hudson Bay's ice is becoming less predictable in ways that matter immediately: whether a route is safe, where the floe edge sits, when the eiders arrive. Elders and hunters in Sanikiluaq, Nunavut proposed a platform to record all of it, and the Arctic Eider Society — a charity based in the community rather than in a southern city — built SIKU with them and with Inukjuak, Umiujaq, Kuujjuaraapik and Chisasibi. It combines satellite imagery, weather and ice data with observations posted by harvesters, wildlife sightings, hunting stories and Inuktitut terms for conditions that English has no word for. Contributors have been logging water temperature, salinity, species and contaminants since 2015. The design principle is ownership: communities control their own data and use it in their own research, education and negotiations, rather than handing it to researchers who leave.