permit-holding Inuit, set minimum 
firepower requirements for weapons 
used in the hunt, and confer complete 
protection to mothers and calves. 
Hunters are required to make full use of 
killed narwhals, wasting no part that is 
“suitable for food.” An individual 
hunter’s tag must be affixed to every 
tusk and to the carcass of each tuskless 
female and immature male. Annual 
quotas are set for each settlement; the 
level is based on historic utilization pat- 
terns and presumed need. 
In practice, this management frame- 
work leaves much to be desired. Kerry 
Finley, of LGL Environmental Re- 
search Associates in Toronto, was on 
the ice with Pond Inlet hunters during 
the 1978 and 1979 seasons. His record 
of their catch indicates that the Pond 
Iniet quota of 100 narwhals was ex- 
ceeded in both years. Nursing females 
were taken, and utilization of killed ani- 
mals was only partial. Most tusks were 
tagged and reported, but this only pro- 
vides documentation of the adult male 
catch. During certain phases of the 
hunt, at least as many tuskless females 
were caught, but only a small percent- 
age of their carcasses were tagged. 
Our own experience suggests that the 
regulation forbidding waste is inconsis- 
tent with the changing patterns of re- 
source utilization in today’s Arctic. 
While much of the narwhal’s carcass is 
suitable as human food, only the muk- 
tuk, and often not all of that, is saved by 
Canadian Inuit. They have no tradition 
of eating the meat, although the native 
people of North Greenland eat it fresh 
or dried. There are no working dog 
teams today in Pond Inlet or Arctic 
Bay, the two settlements that account 
for 75 percent or more of Canada’s nar- 
whal catch. In the past, much of the 
meat and viscera was used as dog food 
and the blubber oil was saved for do- 
mestic needs. 
At present, the hunt for adult male 
narwhals in Canada is primarily a tro- 
phy hunt. Although it has some aspects 
of a subsistence enterprise, the cash in- 
centive and the failure to make full nu- 
tritional use of the resource call into 
question the appropriateness of manag- 
ing it as a subsistence hunt. As with all 
commercial fisheries, the sustainable 
yield should be assessed, and a regime 
that would insure against overexploita- 
tion should be instituted. 
We do not know if a serious conser- 
vation problem exists. Today, the re- 
ported landed catch by Canada and 
Greenland combined is from 600 to 
1,000 narwhals per year. Correcting 
this figure for the high rate of hunting 
loss due to sinking or severe wounding, 
annual hunting mortality alone may be 
well over 1,000 whales per year. Unfor- 
tunately, we are not certain that the 
whales killed by Greenlanders are from 
the same stock as those killed by Inuit 
in Canada. We have but a rough idea of 
how large a population is being hunted 
in either area. The actual magnitude of 
the kill and the effects of harassment on 
the fecundity and fitness of narwhals 
are completely unknown. Just as there 
is a need for biological research on nar- 
whals themselves, there is a need to 
know more about the past and present 
character of the market for their tusks. 
In managing the narwhal hunt, the 
fundamental problem of enforcement 
will always remain. The International 
Whaling Commission has no enforce- 
ment powers. It depends exclusively on 
the good faith efforts of member gov- 
ernments and, in the case of the nar- 
whal, simply serves as a forum for 
discussion of scientific findings. Nei- 
ther the Canadian federal government 
nor the government of the Northwest 
Territories is likely to invest the kind of 
resources required to police an activity 
so remote and individualistic. To an ex- 
tent, the trade in ivory can be moni- 
tored and restricted. As scarcity, or 
anticipated scarcity, drives the pur- 
chase price higher, however, even this 
aspect of the hunt may become increas- 
ingly difficult to manage. 
Even if a workable enforcement 
scheme could be devised, that may not 
be the best long-term approach to nar- 
whal conservation. After all, some of 
the problematic aspects of the hunt, 
particularly the high loss rate and the 
waste of useful products, were caused, 
at least in part, by forces outside the In- 
uit community. Until recently, hunters 
were encouraged to purchase rifles and 
outboard motors, to replace their dog 
teams with snowmobiles, and general- 
ly, to adopt hunting habits designed to 
serve outside markets for ivory and 
skins. Now, abruptly in their view, the 
same hunters are being asked to abide 
by quotas that they consider arbitrary. 
Outside agencies that attempt enforce- 
ment, without giving hunters opportu- 
nities for consultation or even self- 
regulation, run the risk of working 
counter to the cause of conservation. 
Education and cooperative decision 
making may offer more hope than di- 
rect confrontation. Kerry Finley met 
with the Hunters and Trappers Associ- 
ation of Pond Inlet after the 1979 sea- 
son. He shared his findings with them 
and offered suggestions about how 
hunting practices could be improved. 
The hunters agreed to consider his rec- 
ommendations, including the regular 
use of harpoons with floats to insure re- 
trieval of shot whales, less hunting at 
the ice edge where sinking losses are 
high and females and calves are often 
taken, and restricted use of outboard 
motors in areas such as Tremblay 
Sound, which are frequented by fe- 
males with calves. 
It is the hunters themselves who 
must come to recognize their own long- 
term stake in conservation. The people 
of Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet have a di- 
verse and rich resource base. Ringed 
seals, bearded seals, walruses, polar 
bears, wildfowl, caribou, and char still 
contribute to their subsistence, and the 
pelts of polar bears and arctic foxes add 
to their cash income. In addition, many 
men and some women are employed by 
government agencies or by mineral-ex- 
traction industries. Narwhal hunting is 
by no means essential to community 
survival. Rather, it is one of various 
sources of cash income and food. While 
many Inuit children of today are likely 
to adopt life styles very different from 
those of their parents, some will want to 
remain close to the land, maintaining 
by choice a tradition into which their 
parents were born. It would be tragic if 
this were made impossible by a previ- 
ous generation’s lack of foresight. 
At long last, some of the world is be- 
coming aware that there is a whale be- 
hind the tusk. And as appreciation of 
living whales increases, perhaps more 
of the money pumped into the Inuit 
economy will be for the capture of live 
narwhals for display and research and 
less will be for tusks removed from the 
jaws of dead animals. Development of a 
live-capture fishery on Baffin Island 
might simultaneously serve the finan- 
cial interests of local Inuit and reduce 
hunting pressure on narwhals. Also, if 
many of the questions regarding tusk 
development and function are ever to 
be answered, captive subjects may be 
required for experimentation and close 
observation. □ 
The price of narwhal ivory is currently 
high, with premiums paid for tusks 
longer than seven and a half feet or 
for the extremely rare “ double 
tuskers. ” This unusual specimen was 
taken at Pond Inlet, July, 1978. 
Kerry Finley 
56 
