The Davis Strait - DCE - Nationalt Center for Miljø og Energi

Figure 4.8.9. Main summer and
winter grounds of narwhals in
West Greenland and the Eastern
Canadian Arctic. Narwhals can
be found along the whole northwest
coast of Greenland during
migration between winter and
summer grounds. Map modified
from Heide-Jørgensen & Laidre
(2006).
70°N
66°N
62°N
Peel Sound
108°W
CANADA
Sommerset
Island
Admirality Inlet
Foxe Basin
Narwhal
Assessment area
0
58°N
200 400 Km
76°W
100°W
Eclipse
Sound
Jones
Sound
Baffin Island
68°W
92°W
Smith Sound
Baffin Bay
Northern
offshore
wintering
ground
Southern
offshore
wintering
ground
Inglefield
Bredning
Davis Strait
GREENLAND
Melville
Bay
Disko
Bay
Intense benthic feeding behaviour has been documented for narwhals on
their winter feeding grounds and suggests that a major portion of the annual
energy intake is obtained on these winter feeding grounds (Laidre et al.
2004, Laidre & Heide-Jørgensen 2005). Hence, the wintering grounds are
likely to be the most critically important habitat for narwhals (Laidre et al.
2008). Furthermore, a significant portion of the global population of narwhals
winters in the northern Davis Strait and southern Baffin Bay area.
The northern part of the assessment area may overlap with the southern part
of narwhal wintering grounds. There are about 18,000 narwhals wintering in
the offshore pack ice (Laidre & Heide-Jørgensen 2011). These narwhals can
be found at extremely high densities (average 77 narwhals km 2 open water
in 2008) in leads in dense pack ice (Laidre & Heide-Jørgensen 2011). There
were approximately 6,500 narwhals in the wintering ground in West Greenland
in 2006 (Heide-Jørgensen et al. 2010c). As mentioned above, the narwhals
wintering in or close to the assessment area come from a number of
summer grounds in Arctic Canada and North West Greenland. Based on a
series of surveys in 2002-2004, it was estimated that more than 60,000 nar-
84°W
60°W
76°W
68°W
60°W
52°W
52°W 44°W
78°N
74°N
70°N
66°N
62°N
145