The world is full of surprises. Nature always seems to amaze us by offering up a whole host of creatures where we least expect to find them. Crabs can be found living in the treetops and birds fly through the oceans while some species of fish crawl around quite comfortably on dry land.

When we think of the Arctic we usually think in terms of ice and snow, howling winds and barren tundra. And there is that, but Canada's Arctic also has a distinct and incredible raw beauty to it that, once experienced, is hard to shake. And life abounds in the Arctic, unique animals and plants have adapted superbly to an incredibly harsh and unforgiving environment. And nowhere is this truer than in the oceans. Beneath the frigid seas, where water temperatures usually hover around -1 C, weird and wonderful marine creatures flourish in a desperate fight for survival. During descents beneath bumping and grinding ice floes we were surrounded by ctenophores (comb jellies), shell-less swimming snails called pteropods, small colourful sea jellies and dense clouds of tiny shrimp, or mycids. On the bottom, wherever we looked it seemed that every creature we saw was either feeding or being fed upon and sometimes both! And some animals used some interesting means to hunt their prey. It didn't take the fish long to get the idea that some tasty morsel might be stirred up by our fins or hands as we worked our way across the bottom, so we were often followed closely by several sculpins.

Unfortunately very little research on the Arctic marine environment has been done, the ecology is poorly understood and many species still remain undescribed. The Arctic is an area rich in natural resources and today; plans for development may have a serious impact on many unique habitats and animals.