Beluga whales say hello to a camera aboard the beluga boat Delphi.

Grab a front-row seat, it's rush hour for belugas.

Is the summer heat getting you down? Cool off with a virtual dip into icy Arctic waters and watch as tens of thousands of beluga whales frolic in the frigid sea. Starting Friday (July 15), the research vessel Delphi will broadcast a beluga whale livestream, direct from the Churchill River estuary where the river flows into Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada. 

The livestream, produced in a partnership between Arctic conservation nonprofit Polar Bears International and explore.org, is in celebration of Arctic Sea Ice Day on July 15. The goal is to raise public interest in sea ice and increase awareness of its importance to the Arctic ecosystem.

"It is to the ocean what soil is to the forest," Alysa McCall, the director of conservation outreach and staff scientist at Polar Bears International, told Live Science.

Viewing belugas 

The "beluga cams" go live each year as a group of approximately 55,000 beluga whales migrate to the shallow waters of Hudson Bay. The bay is locked in by ice in the winter, according to Stephen Petersen, director of conservation and research at Canada's Assiniboine Park Conservancy, which forces the belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) to head north into more open seas. But in the summer, the whales return. The whales may find that the sheltered waters of the bay offer protection from killer whales, Petersen told Live Science, while the estuaries provide hungry belugas with ample food. It’s also possible that the warm, low-salt waters from the Churchill River estuary may be beneficial for young calves that haven't developed a full covering of blubber, or for adult whales as they undergo an annual molt and shed their skin.

Two cameras aboard Polar Bears International's beluga boat Delphi (short for Delphinapterus, part of beluga's scientific name) provide different views of this thriving whale population: one from the deck and one from below the water’s surface, which also captures audio of the whale's chittering calls. The whales can make a variety of noises, ranging from clicking sounds to squawks and airy snorts.

Beluga whales are found throughout the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Some populations are endangered, but the one that migrates into Hudson Bay each year is a healthy size, Petersen said. One of the goals of the beluga cams is to maintain that population's health.