Huge narwhal displacement following shipping of iron ore in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

Abstract

With 100,000 narwhals inhabiting populations in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the Northwest Passage runs through the largest aggregation of narwhals in the world. I use a metapopulation analysis that covers eight of the narwhal populations in the area to estimate that about 25,000 narwhals have emigrated from Eclipse Sound to Admiralty Inlet since 2007, causing almost total population collapse in Eclipse Sound following shipping of iron ore through Milne Inlet and Eclipse Sound. It is estimated that up to about 30,000 narwhals may vanish in the long run, unless shipping is increasingly regulated, or narwhals adapt to the disturbance and reinhabits the abandoned areas. Reflecting only a local disturbance, these population effects warn against intense shipping in other fjords with narwhals, and against a potentially much larger impact from increased shipping through the Northwest Passage in the future.