A new report predicts there will be almost no narwhal left in an area off the northeastern coast of Baffin Island this summer and says shipping traffic from the nearby Mary River iron-ore mine is to blame.
Working groups from the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission and Canada/Greenland Joint Commission on Beluga and Narwhal met in Denmark in December and published their report this week, which the mine's operator says leaves out key information.
Hunters in Pond Inlet, known as Mittimatalik in Inuktitut, have reported seeing fewer narwhal in areas where they were once abundant and the tusked whales' behaviour is changing, harming their ability to harvest the animals they rely on for food, livelihoods and culture. Baffinland has said factors other than shipping may have led to the drop in numbers including changing ice conditions and predator-prey dynamics, or natural migration to Admiralty Inlet, where the number of narwhals observed in the summer has increased.
The company said it was not made aware of the workshop or invited to share its research with the working groups and questioned the report's findings.
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