The world's weirdest whale: Hunt for the sea unicorn

J Thoendell stashed this in Awesome

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22...

There are some 90,000 narwhals in the frozen northern seas. A small population lives off the coast of Svalbard, Norway, but most inhabit seas around Greenland, or are found in the northern reaches of Hudson Bay and in the Canadian high Arctic. The Baffin Bay population is one of the largest. Each summer, hundreds of narwhals return to these fjords and inlets. Orr and his team aim to catch nine of them as they swim past, and fit them with satellite transmitter tags.

Orr is a veteran of this research, having tagged 300 whales over the past 30 years, mostly narwhals and belugas. It is hard, unpredictable, time-consuming work, but it is worth the effort to better understand this elusive animal. Narwhals are particularly tricky to study because they spend each winter in the dense Arctic pack ice, in complete darkness. Satellite tracking is invaluable in efforts to learn more about them.

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129564.500-the-worlds-weirdest-whale-hunt-for-the-sea-unicorn.html?full=true#.UwPoi2SYKMN"><img src="//img.pandawhale.com/post-37797-The-world-s-weirdest-whale-Hun-wyUs.jpeg" alt="The world s weirdest whale Hunt for the sea unicorn life 17 February 2014 New Scientist" /></a>
 
 Source:
 <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129564.500-the-worlds-weirdest-whale-hunt-for-the-sea-unicorn.html?full=true#.UwPoi2SYKMN">http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22...</a>

There are some 90,000 narwhals in the frozen northern seas. A small population lives off the coast of Svalbard, Norway, but most inhabit seas around Greenland, or are found in the northern reaches of Hudson Bay and in the Canadian high Arctic. The Baffin Bay population is one of the largest. Each summer, hundreds of narwhals return to these fjords and inlets. Orr and his team aim to catch nine of them as they swim past, and fit them with satellite transmitter tags.

Orr is a veteran of this research, having tagged 300 whales over the past 30 years, mostly narwhals and belugas. It is hard, unpredictable, time-consuming work, but it is worth the effort to better understand this elusive animal. Narwhals are particularly tricky to study because they spend each winter in the dense Arctic pack ice, in complete darkness. Satellite tracking is invaluable in efforts to learn more about them.