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

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whals spend the summer spread over several locations in High Arctic Canada
(Richard et al. 2010). The abundances of narwhals in Inglefield Bredning
and Melville Bay, Northwest Greenland, in 2007 were 8,368 (95% CI: 5,209–
13,442) and 6,024 (95% CI: 1,403–25,860), respectively (Heide-Jørgensen et al.
2010c).
Due to intense hunting in the past, the stocks in Greenland have been under
great pressure and narwhals are considered as critically endangered on the
Greenland Red List (Boertmann 2007). On a global scale, narwhals are subject
to differing levels of threats and are placed in the category near threatened
on the IUCN Red List (IUCN 2008).
Northern bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon ampullatus
This species is found only in the North Atlantic, where they inhabit deep
waters off the continental shelf and near submarine canyons (Jefferson et al.
2008). This 7-9 metre long whale is a deep diving species, diving as deep as
1,400 meters (Hooker & Baird 1999) to forage primarily on squid (e.g. Lick &
Piatkowski 1998) but other invertebrates and fish also constitute their diet.
They live in groups where especially the males may form long-term associations
(Gowans et al. 2001). The bottlenose whales are present in Greenland
during summer (Mosbech et al. 2007) and are common in the assessment area.
However, because the species has been poorly studied in Greenland,
abundance distribution and seasonality patterns along the West coast are
unknown. The only place where bottlenose whales have been studied in detail
is off Nova Scotia, Canada, where they show high site fidelity, relatively
small home range and little genetic exchange with other areas (Hooker et al.
2002, Whitehead & Wimmer 2005, Dalebout et al. 2006). All these factors
make bottlenose whales vulnerable to the effect of human activities.
Due to the scarce knowledge on bottlenose whales in Greenland, the species
is listed as not applicable on the Greenland Redlist (Boertmann 2007). Also,
the lack of data regarding the effects of anthropogenic disturbance along
with depletion of stocks due to previous whaling places the species as data
deficient on a global scale (IUCN 2008).
4.9 Summary of Valued Ecosystem Components (VECs)
As part of an environmental impact assessment of an area, the concept of
Valued Ecosystem Components (VEC) is sometimes applied. The idea is to
identify important ecosystem components, because it is often not possible to
evaluate all ecological components individually. VECs can be species, populations,
biological events or other environmental features that are important
to the human population (not only economically), have a national or international
profile, can act as indicators of environmental change, or can be the
focus of management or other administrative efforts. VECs can also be important
flora and fauna groups, habitats and processes such as the spring
bloom in primary production.
Based on the available knowledge, summarised in the preceding sections,
and an evaluation of the ecological, economic and cultural importance of organisms
and habitats, the following VECs are suggested for the Davis Strait
assessment area. See chapter 9 for a more detailed description of the VEC
concept and how it has been applied here.