In Canada - The Frozen North

Stranded seal hunters rescue their rescuer

Two seal hunters who were stranded on an ice floe near the west shore of Hudson Bay ended up rescuing their rescuer. Capt.Jill Strelieff with 1 Canadian Air Division says the rescue helicopter landed on the ice floe, but because of its weight, it broke through he ice. She says the two hunters pulled the pilot out of the partially submerged helicopter. Then two search and rescue technicians parachuted down from a Hercules to help the three. A Griffon helicopter from Cold Lake, Alta., transported the hunters, the pilot and the two search and rescue technicians to Arviat, Nunavut. Mounties say the hunters and the pilot are being treated for hypothermia and their injuries are not as bad as first feared.

Missing Alberta man found in deep snow

A mine rescue team and an RCMP dog team rescued a missing Alberta man in metre-deep snow in northeast British Columbia, Tuesday. The RCMP say the 54-year-old man, who suffers from a condition that requires medical treatment, was reported missing by his family on Monday. The next day, an abandoned vehicle the man was driving was found on a road near Tumbler Ridge,B.C., and a search was launched by the Mounties with a police dog and members of the Peace River Coal Mine Rescue team. The man was eventually found -- breathing but unresponsive -- in deep snow near his vehicle. Members of the rescue team carried the man out to the road where an ambulance was waiting and he was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Grande Prairie, Alberta.

Pod of orcas trapped beneath Arctic ice

Marina Lacasse - The Canadian Press

A community leader in the Far North prayed Mother Nature would help free a pod of killer whales trapped under sea ice. Locals say about a dozen orcas gathered around the hole - slightly bigger than a pickup truck -- amid their desperate bid to take in oxygen. Mayor Peter Inukpuk hoped a strong wind would push the floating ice far away enough from shore to free the killer whales.

"But that is (an) act of God and not in our control. For me, anything that can help."

A hunter from the village of Inukjuak in northern Quebec spotted the pod of trapped orcas some 30 kilometres from town which is itself about 1,500 kilometres north of Montreal. The whales bobbed to the surface in the opening, sometimes rocketing half their bodies straight up out of the hole as they took in oxygen.  The trapped orcas appeared distressed, but people were not equipped to help them.

"I don't know what's going to happen, but we would love to see them free" said one man."

MAGGIE OKITUK/REUTERS A pod of killer whales, seen here taking turns surfacing through a breathing hole while trapped in the ice near near Inukjuak, in Northern Quebec, have reportedly reached open water, locals said Thursday. 

 

Finally, ice on the bay shifted Thursday morning, opening up the small hole where the whales were trapped, giving the mammals safe passage out of a situation that might surely have resulted in their deaths.