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Environmental Threats to Arctic Marine Life and Communities

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Environmental Threats to Arctic Marine Life and Communities Polar Exposure: Environmental Threats to Arctic Marine Life and Communities Various forms of environmental degradation of the Arctic— some visible to local inhabitants, most ignored by the international community—threaten the people and wildlife of the Arctic region. These threats are too subtle and dispersed for the public to notice ... except in retrospect. Swiss␣ Coalition␣ for␣ the␣ Protection␣ of␣ Whales␣ • Global␣ Survival␣ Network Katherine A. Katherine A. Hanly␣ Greenland, 1997 Various forms of environmental environment and marine mammals— degradation of the Arctic—some visible contamination originating in the more to local inhabitants, most ignored by the southern and industrialized world. By international community—threaten the consuming meat and blubber from marine people and wildlife of the Arctic region. mammals, a significant portion of the These threats are too subtle and dispersed Arctic people are unwittingly exposing for the public to notice ... except in themselves to second-hand pollution retrospect. spread from sources far away. Two marine mammal species—the Arctic people have coexisted with beluga whale and the narwhal—are and consumed whales for centuries. indicators of the myriad threats facing life Factors beyond their region and beyond in the Arctic marine environment today1. their control threaten to destroy that These two cousin cetacean species— balance. The South Greenland beluga toothed whales belonging to the smaller whale is extinct2 and others may follow. cetacean species—are wanderers of the The St. Lawrence Estuary population of Arctic marine environment. Each species beluga whales is suffering from number several separate and distinct environmental degradation. stocks around Greenland, Russia, Canada This changing relationship between and the United States. Within these humans and whales, and the damaging areas, the whales have traditionally health effects on both, should not be coexisted with, and have been sustainably analyzed in the context of who should, or Contents consumed by native peoples. who should not, exploit the Arctic’s Narwhals ...........................1 The beluga and narwhal are now natural resources. Inuits have been Belugas .............................5 under pressure from hunting, environ- affected socially, culturally, and Threats............................11 mental degradation, and atmospheric economically after Norway, Iceland, Contamination of the change. Moreover, both species are part of Canada and Russia depleted the whale Arctic Environment .........15 international trade—narwhals for their stocks on which they subsisted. The Health Policy and ivory tusks, and belugas for the entertain- subsequent and necessary protection of Risk Management ............17 ment industry. These factors, along with the great whales has perpetuated a steady Recomendations ..............18 aboriginal hunting in most ranges of the decline in small cetacean stocks, as native References .......................19 species, may endanger the very existence hunters have been forced to rely primarily of these whales. on small cetaceans such as beluga and front cover: Arctic communities are also narwhal. Uummannaq, Greenland threatened. Health problems have arisen The destruction of the Arctic is an back cover: among indigenous peoples as a result of international crisis that demands Upernavik, Greenland increased contamination of the marine international action. 22 · Polar Exposure: Arctic Environmental Threats Narwhals Male—and some female—narwhals 22 grow a uniquely distinguishing tusk of 23 ivory protruding from their upper jaw. This tusk can grow up to two meters long, 21 while the full body length of an adult narwhal can reach 4.5 meters. The 24 narwhal’s tusk is used for combative interaction with other males and to stir up the ocean bottom for prey. A male 20 narwhal may weigh up to 1,350 kilos and 11 25 a female 900 kilos. The animals feed on 19 1 2 12 Arctic cod fish, squid, and crustaceans. 18 10 3 16 4 26 15 13 5 Range and Population 6 27 17 14 7 Of beluga and narwhal, the narwhal 9 28 has the most limited geographic range of 8 29 the two species. Three distinct popula- 30 tions of narwhal have been provisionally recognized: Baffin Bay and Davis Strait (called the Baffin Bay stock), Northern Hudson Bay, and East Greenland. In 1991, the International Whaling In 1991 scientists estimated that the The Arctic Commission’s (IWC) Scientific narwhal stock of Northern Hudson Bay Committee expressed concern about totaled 1,300 animals, a conservatively 1. Thule narwhal catch levels in Greenland and low number since submerged animals were 2. Melville Bay Canada. In 1992 the IWC made it clear not counted3. Scientists further 3. Upernavik that neither country had reduced this maintained that the stock is a discreet one 4. Maarmorilik mine concern3. In fact, during its meeting in and that it should be managed 5. Nunavik 1992, the Joint Commission on the accordingly. A maximum of 40 narwhals 6. Uummannaq Conservation of the Beluga and Narwhal have been hunted annually from this 7. Ilulissat (JCCBN), a Greenland-Canada bilateral stock between 1974 to 1987, and in more 8. Nuuk body comprised of Arctic researchers and recent years, 14 narwhals were killed 9. Davis Strait community members, acknowledged that between 1993 and 19966. 10. Baffin Bay harvests of narwhal from the Baffin Bay DNA sampling has concluded that 11. Arctic Bay stock was not sustainable and that the East Greenland population of 12. Baffin Island management action should be taken4. narwhals is also discreet, and that in its 13. Cumberland Sound The Baffin Bay narwhal population migration, the stock wanders north to 14. Iqaluit migrates between the Canadian High Svalbard and the Barents Sea region of 15. Lake Harbour Arctic and the West-North/West Coast of the Russian Arctic3. Very little is known 16. Hudson Strait Greenland. Inuit communities on each about the status and distribution of this 17. Ungava Bay coast of the Baffin Bay hunt these stock; there is no population estimate of 18. Sanikiluaq narwhals. It is difficult to say how many these animals. It is known, however, that 19. Hudson Bay animals are taken in the combined hunt. the hunt for narwhals on the east coast of 20. Churchill River There are inadequate or nonexistent Greenland has ranged between 40 and 60 21. Beaufort Sea reporting schemes in both Canada and animals annually, while in 1989 and 1990 22. Chukchi Sea Greenland, though most apparent in the the catch was an estimated 70-80 23. East Siberian Sea West Greenland area where the reporting animals7. It is presumed that the struck 24. Laptev Sea system broke down completely in the and loss rate of animals, especially on 25. Kara Sea 1980s5. The Joint Commission’s Scientific open water, is high. 26. Novaya Zemlya Working Group in 1995 accepted that all As mentioned, narwhal groups are 27. Svalbard reported catches of narwhal within the found in the Barents, White, Kara, 28. Barents Sea Baffin Bay stock are under-reported. Laptev, East Siberia and the Chukchi Seas 29. Murmansk Furthermore the Commission could not with no known or reliable data on harvest 30. Kola Peninsula assign population status to narwhal due to of the species. Reports of narwhals in the uncertainties in stock identity, Eurasian Arctic Ocean have registered the abundance, rate of increase and animals as far as 85˚ North and straying to mortality2. the Bering Sea8, 64. Records and sighting of Polar Exposure: Arctic Environmental Threats · 1 exploitation of the stock, the current lack of a credible quota system in Greenland is disconcerting, especially when one takes Randall R. Reeves␣ Randall R. into account deficient and inadequate reporting of actual catches. Since 1990 no hunting statistics have been available from Greenland’s Avanersuaq District north of Upernavik. Danish scientists report that in Greenland’s Uummannaq District, south of Upernavik, 400-500 narwhals were killed in 1989 but only 275 animals were actually reported. To illustrate the impossibility of relying on dependable trends in, or data from, the Greenland hunt, a recorded 1,019 narwhals were killed in Uummannaq in 1990, while the assumed total from only two months of that year was 1,046 Narwhal narwhal from Alaskan waters are animals12. Greenlanders are able to catch extremely rare and the presence of the beluga and narwhal approximately seven species here is considered exceptional9. months out of the year. The JCCMNB There are no data to suggest that narwhals estimated that the average total annual are being hunted off Alaska. kill between Canada and Greenland is 820 for the years 1983-1993, not counting Hunting 1991, when there were no numbers from Narwhal are hunted for meat, Greenland at all. This does not include blubber, skin and ivory. All of these parts numbers from Avernersuaq where there are bartered and commercially traded are no records kept, but where the locally. Narwhal ivory is sold to tourists in JCCMNB estimated the number of kills Canada and Greenland; some is exported to be around 150-200 annually2. None of primarily to Europe and Asia. Most these numbers assume that there is records of narwhal hunting in Greenland mortality as a result of struck but lost are incomplete or nonexistent. Some data animals. are derived from the amount of ivory tusks In 1992, the IWC Scientific registered as exports, but these do not Committee affirmed that apparent reflect females hunted which do not carry inconsistencies in correlation between tusks10. narwhal catches and documented mattak Methods used to hunt narwhals have sales in villages of northwestern changed considerably. The majority of Greenland meant that the true average both Greenland and Canadian hunters annual catch was, or is, probably twice as have replaced their highly effective and large. The IWC Scientific Committee traditional kayaks and hand-held expressed serious concern in 1992 that harpoons, with using motorboats and the status of the narwhal had been rifles. This modern and preferred method declining3. results in a higher number of whales Canada also concedes that much of landed, but is also more wasteful.
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