According to Nunavut's Nunatsiaq Online, a new study published in the Sept. 21 issue of the journal Biology Letters reports the first observed Northwest Passage meeting of bowhead whale populations kept separate by sea ice for thousands of years. The researchers used satellite tracking to follow bowheads from a population in the Bering, Beaufort and Chukchi seas and another from Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. In August 2010, two whales, one from each group, were observed entering the same area (Viscount Melville Sound) in the Northwest Passage from opposite directions. The whales stayed in proximity for about 10 days. Scientists have observed whales entering the Northwest Passage from either side for some time now, but this is the first evidence of the two groups overlapping. Read much, much more, here.