Translation 2783

.... 236
Their rate of niovement depend s on tlie circurnstar,ces .
Alarmed white
whales i-iiay.swirn at a rate of ten to twelve knots.
The most.intensive hunting•' of white whales takes place in
Hudsôn. Bay from Juno to ijeptember, with a peak in July and Au6-ust,
and in adjacent areas; from 93 to 708 o.i the animals are killed tnere
annually. In Greenland waters they are hunted all year round, but
the maximum kill is in January and May. Up to 540 white wiiales are
killed there during the season.
ITntil recently there was small-scale hunting of white whales
in the Barents and. 1t:ara ;jeas, the annual kill being from 139 to 1,333.
Data on the kill are presented in Appendix 12.
Por the yield of prouucts, see the chapter on 'Cetacea of the
Pacific Ocean and Adjacent Waters of the Arctic Gceailr' .
l1arwhal (T•:onodon monoceros)
The narwhai lives fartrier north than any other cetacean, in
thc region adjacent to th6 edge of the ice-fields. I•.umer.ous grou}rs
of narwhals are observed in sumfner in the Franz-Josef LL-.---d reg-ion
^a.s far north as E30o-850 14; and near I^iovaya Geialya; alon€; the coast
of oiberi.a they almost never approach the land. ..Che-j are abundant
in the uanadian 1;retic arcnipeJ.a[;o and around Ureenland. Dr. winter,
because of ice formation, the narwhals move southward; sometime.s
they enter the ti•thite aea.
'a'hey have been r.ecoraed off the coasts of urcr-tt L;ritain and
even of the Ne eherlands.
A!arwhals feed mainl,y on cephalopod:r and also eat. vc.ri.ous species
of fishes, principal ciemei•sa1: fir.hes.
Almost no studies have been made of narwh^^.'1 rc .proutiction. 158
It is posbible tiial; rnatinL; and. Pa:l.'tu"J.'S.tioï_ take place tiii•ou,;,.ou-c tire
year.. i.è1•r-born narwhal calves are from 1.5 to 1.7 uretres in lengtii.
i:arirlials stay iii ^;xoups rrumberin^; i'ror:i a. few aiii,anls up io
.huge herds of hundreds ^.i'ormerly even thoue,a.,ûs) . •,.^;ce,y a.jlrroacir siii,p.5
and me.y fol.loFa Inern fol: F,ori;e ti.rne.
zricy are aclo to uive to a (iepth
of 400 rnetre._ and to rurua.in for a lonU time under wate:>_•. _-,rey break
oc
tiaiouf.,n fruc;îi ice up to ^ 5 cm thick, maicx.rr{; air-,:olc:s or everr sniall
n
patche:, of ore:, wacer.
1)rlta on the t;1Lk(: of nr>>•w,rsl.,. ^^re 1res.:nt-eu in :t..pcncri:_ 12.
1)" :^o^nc yc^nra 1.1 f.'ew tcns of trrr::m are i:illed off tia cu^,c C oi ^;r ^ i:nl^tc u,