Understanding when and where bowhead whales occur is ecologically, culturally and politically important in the context of a rapidly changing climate, with some of the greatest impacts happening in the Arctic. Decreases in sea ice allow for increased shipping and its associated underwater noise in one of the last acoustically pristine habitats in the world. Bowheads, the only endemic Arctic mysticete and a cultural keystone species for the Inuit, are vocal, their survival depends on sound, thus vulnerable to increasing noise.