The 'ping' in Fury and Hecla Strait
Through the summer of 2016 Inuit hunters near Igloolik, Nunavut, reported a pinging or humming sound from the sea floor in Fury and Hecla Strait, which they said drove away game; in November a Canadian CP-140 Aurora patrol aircraft searched the area.
2016 CE · 69.85, -84.00 · status: unexplained
The account
The strait, about 120 km north-west of Igloolik, is a key hunting ground for bowhead whales, seals and walrus. The Department of National Defence said the crew made multiple searches with sonobuoys, detected no surface or sub-surface contacts and saw two pods of whales and some walrus. Theories ranged from a foreign submarine to mining sonar or Greenpeace equipment, and none was confirmed. The military later sent two acoustics specialists to Igloolik to gather accounts; the local member of the legislature said the noise seemed to have stopped after the search.
The sceptical view
Marine mammals, ice, distant ship or survey sonar, or a lost acoustic device are all ordinary candidates; the search found no source because the sound may simply have ended.
The researched reading
A real report from experienced hunters that the military could not reproduce; the source is undetermined.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Undetermined | 50% | The sound was not recorded or analysed, and seemed to stop around the time of the search, so the source is undetermined. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 25% | The strait holds whales and walrus, whose calls and movements, and ice noise, can produce pings and hums; the patrol saw two pods of whales and walrus. |
| Something known, misidentified | 15% | A distant survey sonar, a lost acoustic device or ship machinery could account for a mechanical-sounding ping. |
| Secret human technology | 10% | Local suspicion of a foreign submarine was taken seriously enough to send a CP-140 Aurora; it found no sub-surface contact. |
Official position: The Department of National Defence reported no surface or sub-surface contacts and later sent acoustics specialists to gather accounts.