AR CT I C

WHAL E S
in a
ME LT I NG
WOR L D
T ODD M
c
L E I S H
vnis
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vc:ic nirs
in a
rri:io ovio
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sruri o i:nr s:vour noo
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TODD M
C
LEISH
uivrvsi:v or snio:o vvrss
Seattle and London
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Tis book is published with the assistance of a grant from
the Samuel and Althea Stroum Endowed Book Fund.
ao by the University of Washington Press
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Design by Tomas Eykemans
Composed in Warnock Pro, typeface designed by Robert Slimbach
Display type set in Verne Jules, designed by Isaac Tobin
; 6 a
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechani-
cal, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
uivrvsi:v or snio:o vvrss
vo Box oo,6, Seattle, ,8, us
www.washington.edu/uwpress
iinvvv or coovrss c:iooio-i-vuniic:io o:
McLeish, Todd.
Narwhals : Arctic whales in a melting world i Todd McLeish.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isn ,;8-o-a,-,,a6-8 (pbk : alk. paper)
. Narwhal.
i. Title.
Qi;;.cr ao ,,.dca aoao;68
Te paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the mini-
mum requirements of American National Standard for Information
SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, si
z,.8,8.
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For Renay.
Once again.
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co:r:s
Prologue ix
oo
or First Encounter
:o Whale Spotting 6
:nvrr A Symphony of Moos a8
rouv Te Inside-Out Tooth
rivr Mythology a
six Melting Ice 8o
srvr Greenland ,;
rion: Subsistence o
ir Muktuk aa
:r To the East
rirvr Playing Catch 6
:rivr Gaining Ground 6
:niv:rr Looking Ahead ;8
oo
Acknowledgments 8,
Bibliography ,
Index ,,
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ix
vvoioour
:nr iui: iroro or :nr ovioi or :nr vni ns nrr
told in many versions throughout the eastern Canadian Arctic, with
some being quite long and detailed and others simple and unadorned.
Although the basic story is similar, each person brings to the tale slight
variations reecting the individuality of the oral tradition. Tis version
was told to narwhal researcher Martin Nweeia by Elisapee Ootuva, an
elder from Ban Island and the author of the rst Inuit-to-English dic-
tionary. In Alaska and the western Canadian Arctic, outside the native
range of the narwhal, the story is sometimes called Te Blind Boy and
the Loon, and the ending refers to walruses or polar bears.
A wicked woman lived with her daughter and her son, who was born
blind. As the son got older, his sight improved, even though the mother
tried to convince him of his helpless state. One day a polar bear came
near the house and the mother told the son to aim a bow and arrow
at the bear through the window covered with seal skin and strike him
down. Te boy pulled back the arrow and the mother took aim for him.
Te arrow struck the heart of the bear and although the boy could
hear the groans of the dying bear, the mother laughed scornfully at
him, saying that he had missed the bear. Tat night the mother and
the daughter had fresh polar bear meat while the mother cooked dog
meat for the son. Later the boys sister told her brother that his shot
was successful and secretly gave him some of the polar bear meat.
Time passed and an old man came to the house for a visit. Before
he left, he told the young girl how she could help her brother regain his
sight. In the spring, he told them to watch for a red-throated loon who
would swim trustingly toward them. Once the loon was close enough,
the blind brother should wrap his arms around the loons neck and the
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loon would take him to the bottom of the lake. Once they came up, his
sight would return. Te loon told the young man not to tell about his
regained sight until later in the summer when he would send a pod of
belugas to their campsite.
When summer came and the ice began to break, the belugas began
to move. On one occasion, a pod was closer to land than usual. Te
young man grabbed his harpoon and told his sister to accompany him
to help him aim. Tey went to the shoreline and the mother, seeing the
son with a harpoon, became concerned and followed them. Once she
was close to them, the son gave the end of the line from the harpoon
to his mother, asking her to tie it around her waist to hold the har-
pooned animal. Te concerned mother told her daughter to make sure
he was after a small animal as she was tied to the harpoon. Te son
instead aimed for the largest whale and harpooned him. Te mother
was cast into the sea. As she submerged she spiraled around the line,
with her long hair twisting into a long lance. Tis is how the narwhal
came to be.
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FIRST ENCOUNTER
i :ni i s ir nr i rivs: nrcrr rrovro or :nr
narwhal, the mysterious sea creature that most people, even today,
arent sure is actually real. Teir confusion arises from the whales
connection to the mythical unicorn, whose horn, modeled after the
narwhals tusk, was reputed to have healing properties. But I knew
back then that narwhals were real. And I knew that the truth about
the ice whale was even better than the myth with which it had become
entangled.
When I stumbled across the narwhal in the pages of the World Book
Encyclopedia, I was struck by the odd combination of tusk and ice and
whale, making the narwhal far more intriguing than the local frogs
and turtles this Rhode Island grade-schooler sought out every day.
When I discovered a long spiral tusk in a Vancouver curio shop two
decades laterlabeled with a price tag of so,ooomy interest was
rekindled, though I assumed I would never actually see one alive in the
wild. Reports of the threats narwhals face from the melting of their icy
world, along with conicting and inaccurate information online and in
other venues, prompted me to undertake a series of journeys far above
the Arctic Circle to nd the truth and reveal the narwhals unique life
cycle and remarkable physical feats.
Narwhals have been surrounded by mystery, mythology, and awe
for centuries. Teyve been celebrated as sea unicorns, held up as proof
of the existence of a land-based unicorn, and cherished for their high-
quality oils. Teyve been a vital source of meat in the diet of Arctic
natives and important to them as a cultural icon. Today they are sur-
rounded, as well, by great concern for the potential harm that could
come to them from retreating sea ice, increased shipping and oil explo-
ration, and changes in environmental conditions caused by a warming
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