. >> the village of kaktovik, alaska on barter island. population, 239. a stark and striking landscape but not quite the snow-blafrnted mountains you quite expect from the arctic. a change which has reached into all corners of life here. it's not long before we see what we came for. we left the shore three minutes ago, and already there are four polar bears right there, swimming in the water. that's incredible. i mean, what are we, 50 feet from them? >> we're pretty darn close. >> one, two, three, four polar bears. a mother with her triplets. these bears a drab shade of brown. wearing the signs of spending so much time on muddy land. >> wow. >> so you often see them playing with each other? >> every day. >> reporter: our captain bruce inglunasak says these bears are here because they're waiting for the sea ice to return. the frozen surface of the arctic ocean where they spend most of the year feeding on seals. >> they're just conserving energy. they know they've got a long wait for freezing. >> reporter: until the freeze-up they scavenge on the remains of