Narwhal tracking project helps chart whale’s future

TRACKING: A narwhal with it's distinctive tusk. Picture: Bryan and Cherry Alexander

Little is known about these Arctic whales

October 2011: WWF is supporting a new project to track narwhals, Arctic whales best known for the long tusk that projects forward from their faces.

The project partners fitted the little-researched whales with satellite tracking devices. WWF is also launching a web page to showcase the partners' fieldwork and research, with maps and information about the latest movements of the narwhals as they move around Baffin Bay in Canada 's Nunavut territory.

Pete Ewins, Arctic species specialist for WWF-Canada, said that it is expected the project will contribute fascinating information about the habits of narwhals.

How are narwhals adapting to shrinking sea ice?
‘We're supporting this project because it is a chance to better understand these animals while their world changes around them. We know narwhals are often associated with sea ice, and we know the sea ice is shrinking.

‘WWF is trying to understand how narwhals, as well as all other ice associated animals in the Arctic can adapt to a changing environment. We can put this knowledge together with existing Inuit knowledge, and we can work with Inuit and other stakeholders to help the animals survive the coming changes.'

The composite maps displayed on the WWF narwhal tracking page show the total paths taken to date by the nine whales being tracked (most of whom were adult females). Having spent much of the past ten to 12 weeks in the fjords and inlets around northern Baffin Island, often probably heading well up these long inlets to escape the increasing number of killer whales now summering in these waters, these narwhals are starting to move out of the area.

Although rapid changes in climatic conditions have been making it increasingly difficult to predict the timing of sea-ice formation in the fall, it is likely that in the next couple of weeks sea-ice will start appearing along the coast and in shallow waters. As temperatures drop regularly well below zero, so the narwhals will steadily move eastwards and into deeper water.

The narwhal tracker can be viewed at: http://www.panda.org/arctic/narwhaltracker.