Footage like this doesn’t surface often. It shows 800 whales in Canada travelling to a safe refuge in Lancaster Sound in order to give birth to their babies. The extraordinary video also offers glimpses of the newborns as well as older belugas whales as they socialised at the location.

Lancaster Sound is a territory off Northern Canada which acts as a secure haven for the whales. These mammals have a very unique chirp and are called “canaries of the sea”, because they appear to be singing.

The video was shot with the help of drones. Cristina Mittermeier, President of Sea Legacy, a collective set up to protect marine life, said,“By virtue of being at the right place and time, we were able to spend a couple of days on shore, watching and filming the belugas as they traveled and found refuge in estuaries where they come to molt.”

Sea Legacy hopes to be able to give the whales a sanctuary away from toxic environments, creating a 110,000-square kilometre zone. “It is an amazing thing to watch hundreds of beluga whales, from older animals to newborns, swim together towards the mouth of a shallow estuary,” Mittermeier said.