Social and nonaggressive, the massive Bowhead whale is the only baleen whale that spend its entire life in Arctic waters. Uniquely adapted to life along and even beneath the ice floe, these ancient mammals, which recent evidence suggests can live up to two hundred years, usually travel alone or in groups of up to six whales. Due to their thick coat of blubber and placid nature, these giant beasts were hunted to near extinction by commercial whalers before the species became protected in the early nineteen hundreds. With a surviving population of only eight thousand whales worldwide, diving alongside these rare, primordial beasts is truly a humbling experience.