Narwhal derives from the Old Norse “nar” meaning “corpse” (Image: Paul Nicklen)
EVEN in the middle of August, Tremblay Sound in the Canadian Arctic is an inhospitable place. As the small plane descends, I get my first glimpse of our destination. Remote and desolate, it consists mostly of piles of rocks and a little scrubby vegetation. During my two-week stay it will be cold, wet and windy almost all the time. Nobody comes to Baffin Island to get a tan.
Nevertheless, this is the third summer running that Jack Orr from Fisheries and Oceans Canada has visited and, together with a team of scientists, vets and Inuit hunters, he seems right at home. In no time at all they have transformed the site into a fully operational research station, complete with colourful sleeping tents, a kitchen tent and a science lab housed in a plywood shack. Finally, they set their trap. Having firmly anchored one end of a heavy-duty fishing net to the shore, Orr jumps in a boat and crosses the narrow inlet so he can sink the other end to the seabed with a bag of rocks. Six buoys keep the upper edge of the net afloat to create a hanging curtain. All we can do now is await our quarry. Its scientific name is Monodon monoceros, which derives from the Greek for “one tooth, one horn” in reference to the males’ spiralled tusk, which can extend up to 3 metres. Many people simply know these creatures as sea unicorns.
There are some 90,000 narwhals in the frozen northern seas. A…
"Narwhal ni neno la Kikanorwe linalomaanisha ""mwili"" (kwa Kiingereza: corpse) na linajulikana kama ""mwili"" kwa sababu ya kuwa katika eneo la Tremblay Sound, kaskazini mwa Kanada, kuna bahari ya bahari yenye joto kali." Ndege ndogo inaposhuka, mimi hupata mtazamo wangu wa kwanza wa mahali tunapokwenda. Eneo hilo ni la mbali na lenye ukiwa, na lina rundo la miamba na mimea michache. Wakati wa kukaa kwangu kwa majuma mawili kutakuwa na baridi, unyevunyevu na upepo karibu wakati wote. Hakuna mtu anayekuja Kisiwa cha Baffin ili kupata rangi ya kahawia. Hata hivyo, hii ni majira ya tatu mfululizo kwamba Jack Orr kutoka Uvuvi na Bahari Canada amewatembelea na, pamoja na timu ya wanasayansi, veterinarians na wawindaji Inuit, yeye inaonekana haki nyumbani. Katika muda mfupi kabisa wamebadilisha tovuti katika kituo cha utafiti kikamilifu kazi, kamili na rangi ya kulala mahema, kitchen tent na maabara ya sayansi makazi katika kibanda plywood. Mwishowe, waliweka mtego wao. Baada ya kuunganisha ncha moja ya wavu wa uvuvi kwenye ufuo, Orr anaruka ndani ya mashua na kuvuka mlango wa bahari ili kuuzamisha upande mwingine wa wavu huo kwenye bahari. Vipuli sita huhifadhi ukingo wa juu wa wavu ili kutokeza pazia linalotundika. Tunaweza tu kufanya sasa ni kusubiri windo letu. Jina lake la kisayansi ni Monodon monoceros, ambalo linatokana na Kigiriki kwa "meno moja, pembe moja" kwa kumbukumbu ya pua ya kiume, ambayo inaweza kupanua hadi mita 3. Watu wengi wanawajua tu viumbe hao kuwa nyati wa baharini. Kuna karibu narwhal 90,000 katika bahari za kaskazini zilizogandamana. A...