Narwhals

Arctic Whales in a Melting World

Todd McLeish

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780295804699
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Marine Biology

Among all the large whales on Earth, the most unusual and least studied is the narwhal, the northernmost whale on the planet and the one most threatened by global warming. Narwhals thrive in the fjords and inlets of northern Canada and Greenland. These elusive whales, whose long tusks were the stuff of medieval European myths and Inuit legends, are uniquely adapted to the Arctic ecosystem and are able to dive below thick sheets of ice to depths of up to 1,500 meters in search of their prey-halibut, cod, and squid.

Join Todd McLeish as he travels high above the Arctic circle to meet:

Teams of scientific researchers studying the narwhal's life cycle and the mysteries of its tusk

Inuit storytellers and hunters

Animals that share the narwhals' habitat: walruses, polar bears, bowhead and beluga whales, ivory gulls, and two kinds of seals

McLeish consults logbooks kept by whalers and explorers and interviews folklorists and historians to tease out the relationship between the real narwhal and the mythical unicorn. In Colorado, he visits climatologists studying changes in the seasonal cycles of the Arctic ice. From a history of the trade in narwhal tusks to descriptions of narwhals' vocalizations as heard through hydrophones, Narwhals reveals the beauty and thrill of the narwhal and its habitat, and the threat it faces from a rapidly changing world.

Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHwaqdKyLCQ&list=UUge4MONgLFncQ1w1C_BnHcw&index=9&feature=plcp

INDEX

A

Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 137

Admiralty Inlet, 5, 60, 151, 171

Aelianus, Claudius, 63

aerial survey, 25–26, 29, 32, 107, 138

Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services, 95

albedo, 87, 92

Aldrovandi, Ulisse, 12

algal bloom, 23, 93, 95, 180

alicorn, 65

Ambulocetus, 80

American Dental Association Foundation, 43

Angnetsiak, David, 120–21

Antarctica, 21–23, 86

Antarctic krill, 21–23

Archaeocetes, 80

Arctic Bay, 114, 156

Arctic char, 37

Arctic cod, 24, 93, 99

Arctic poppy, 161

Arctic willow, 17

ARGOS, 33

Aristotle, 63

assallut, 103

Auger-Méthé, Marie, 165–70

aurora borealis, 183–85

awatuk, 102–3, 112

Azolla, 85–86

B

Backman, Jan, 84

Baffin Bay, 4, 16, 69, 141; aerial survey of, 107; algal blooms in, 95; and bowhead whales, 177–78; and fishing, 145; and narwhal wintering, 29, 81, 177; sea ice, 93; temperatures, 124–25; and walrus, 46

Baffin Island, 5–8, 16, 24, 35–36; and bowhead migration, 179; and ivory gulls, 129–30

Barren Grounds, 6

Basilosaurus, 80

Beaufort Sea, 157

beluga whale, x, 18, 29, 60, 83, 137, 155; in captivity, 150, 156–60; feeding, 93, 109; hunting of, 113; hybrid of, 83, 97; and pollutants, 143; tagging of, 146

Bering Sea, 157, 180

Black, Sandie, 152, 155, 175–76

Blossville Coast, 138

blue whale, 113

Bone Cell Biology Lab, 41

Boston Children's Hospital, 41

bowhead whale, 56, 93, 108–9, 147, 178–82; aerial survey of, 25–27; aging of, 180–82; and climate change...