This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network. A haze of ice crystals in the air created a halo around the low sun as three snowmobiles thundered onto the ...

Lawrence Ruben uses an electric auger to punch a hole through roughly six inches of ice on the Hornaday River east of Paulatuk, N.W.T. The machine does its job in four seconds. Water and pulverized ...