Research Document - 2013/069
Assessment of the winter range of Baffin Bay narwhals
By Richard, P.R., Treble, M.A., and LeBlanc, B.
Abstract
Published tracking studies of narwhals have delimited two winter home ranges in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait for the Baffin Bay population of narwhals. One centres in northern Davis Strait and southern Baffin Bay, the “southern narwhal over-wintering area”, which is in large part within Canadian waters, and contains Canadian narwhal summering stocks from Admiralty Inlet and Eclipse Sound, and the Greenland narwhal stock from Melville Bay. New tracking data from narwhals tagged in Admiralty Inlet suggest that the narwhals that summer there use the southern wintering area annually. Animals in the southern wintering area forage at depths over 1,000 m and it appears that a large part of their diet is composed of Greenland Halibut, estimated at about 86,000 t of Greenland Halibut per annum. The second wintering area referred to as the “northern narwhal over-wintering area” is largely inside Greenlandic waters of central Baffin Bay and is used by narwhals from the Somerset Island summering stock. Animals in the northern wintering area appear to have a smaller proportion of Greenland Halibut in their diet, but the larger number of animals wintering there could still require in excess of 100,000 t of that species.
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