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January 13, 2006
Greenland narwhal quota a cover-up?
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
Over-hunting by narwhal hunters in Uummannaq, Greenland has infuriated conservationists and biologists who say the home rule government is raising quotas to cover up excessive hunting.
The Nuuk newspaper AG said Greenland’s fisheries department granted an additional quota of 35 narwhal to Uummannaq, although a “serious over-harvest” had already taken place in this northwestern municipality. Over-hunting also occurred in Upernavik.
In a recent AG article, journalist Andreas Lindqvist said “first, the biologists recommended a narwhal quota of 135. Then, the home rule government decided to double this quota to 260, and, then, it added on 50 to cover over-hunting in Uummannaq.”
Hunters in Uummanaq have caught 127 narwhal to date, and 68 during a single, two-hour period. In Upernavik, the narwhal quota was 60, but the hunt wasn’t stopped until 67 narwhal were killed.
The total narwhal hunt this year in Greenland may reach 368, although this figure is still down from the 666 recorded two years ago.
Reductions to the narwhal hunt came after Greenland’s Institute of Natural Resources and the North Atlantic Marine Mammals Commission recommended a maximum annual catch of 135 in West Greenland. Biologists say the West Greenlandic narwhal population has decreased by 50 per cent over the past 20 years.
But, in a recent newspaper interview, Finn Karlsen, the minister responsible for hunting and fishing, blasted media for favouring the views of biologists over those of hunters. Hunters maintain there are plenty of narwhal along Greenland’s western coast.
“I believe the hunters more. I was myself raised by a hunter and I know they have more knowledge about this than the biologists,” Karlsen said in an interview with AG.
Biologist Thor Hjarsen from an environmental consulting agency, EcoAdvise, reported the over-hunting to Denmark’s Forest and Nature Agency and the CITES-branch of the European Union Commission.
CITES, or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is an international watchdog group that sets controls on the cross-border sale of threatened species. It’s already threatened to clamp down on any traffic in narwhal from Greenland, due to the over-hunting of narwhal.
January 13, 2006
Narwhal tusk: “most extraordinary” tooth in nature
SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE
A new study by an American dental researcher shows that narwhals use their tusks to determine the salinity of water and search for food.
After four trips to the High Arctic to study narwhals, Martin Nweeia of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine discovered the narwhal’s tooth or tusk is like a giant sensor, with 10 million nerve connections from the central nerve of the tusk to its outer surface. These allow the tusk to detect changes in water temperature.
Nweeia says it’s “the most extraordinary tooth in nature.”
The narwhals’ long tooth emerges from the left side of the upper jaw. Its shape and placement are also unique, and the tusk is found on most males and some females.
“Why would a tusk break the rules of normal development by expressing millions of sensory pathways that connect its nervous system to the frigid Arctic environment?” Nweeia said in a statement. “Such a finding is startling and indeed surprised all of us who discovered it.”
The tusk is also sensitive to touch, and narwhals are known for their “tusking” behavior, when males rub tusks with each other.
“Now that we know the sensory capabilities of the tusk, we can design new experiments to describe some of the unique and unexplained behaviors of this elusive and extraordinary whale,” Nweeia said.
The tusks are both strong and flexible and researchers are trying to find out if narwhal tusks can point to ways of making materials for use in dental reconstructive work.
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