Can you eat narwhal

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Travel The last artists crafting a Thai royal treasure. Subscriber Exclusive Content. Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars? How viruses shape our world. The era of greyhound racing in the U. The gestation period is about 14 months and they give birth in late spring May-June during their northbound migration to their summering grounds.

Recent research using aspartic acid racemization from the lens of the eye suggests narwhals can live to be 90 years old. There are about 80, narwhals worldwide. Narwhals exist in a number of smaller sub-populations or stocks. These are generally defined by where narwhals spend the summer, called the summering grounds. There are at least 10 sub-populations which have been identified by satellite tracking, genetics, and contaminant levels.

These summering populations range in size from a few thousand animals to 40, animals. There are also fall and winter aggregations of narwhals that have not yet been assigned to a summering ground. The degree to which narwhal sub-populations mix remains to be clearly determined but there is some overlap both in winter and summer ranges of a few sub-populations. Narwhals can travel in small pods that can be animals as well as pods that are several hundreds of whales. Pod sizes range widely and can consist of both males and females, or all-female or all-male pods.

Satellite tags are used to track the movements and behavior of narwhals. Tags mounted on a whale transmit signals at frequent intervals which are picked up by polar orbiting satellites high above the earth. When several signals have been received by one satellite, the position of the animal can be determined. Many positions are received from a whale each day but not all are adequately accurate.

Satellite tags not only show where whales go but also what they did underwater. Information on diving, such as time beneath the surface, temperature, or light levels is transmitted in the form of coded numbers that are converted into data on dive activity and ocean features. Although it is only possible to instrument a few whales in a population with satellite transmitters, the method provides a straightforward method of recording where whales go every day.

This method allows for the study of the movements, habitat use and behavior of narwhals for up to 14 months. We have learned a great deal about narwhals using satellite tracking technology.

For example, until some whales were tracked, nothing was known about where specific narwhal populations spent the winter or the migratory routes along the coast of Greenland and Canada. Narwhals have predictable migration patterns and are creatures of habit. Even though they spend a large amount of time offshore far from humans, they still move along the coast, and pass certain promontories, bays or fjords at precisely the same time each year.

Narwhals partition their annual cycle between coastal ice-free summering grounds and offshore wintering grounds covered in dense pack ice. Thus, narwhals leave coastal areas and migrate offshore before the fast ice forms.

This migration, occurring between late September and mid-November, terminated when they reach their wintering grounds, which are offshore over deep waters and south of the summering grounds. In spring, narwhals migrate north back to their summering grounds. Narwhals choose similar wintering grounds year after year independent of sea ice conditions. The narwhal is one of the deepest diving whales, with a record dive depth of approximately 1, m ft, over one mile.

The deepest dives occur in winter, when the narwhals are in the offshore deep water wintering grounds. In summer, narwhals dive to depths between 30 and meters, although they spend most of their time between 0 and 50 meters. In fall, dive depths and durations increase when narwhals migrate towards their wintering grounds. However, they are traveling rapidly during this period and do not do much focused diving. When narwhals are on their wintering grounds, they stay in a fairly limited area for 6 months and make small movements with the shifting leads and cracks in the pack ice.

The proportion of shallow dives dramatically declines, and thus begins some of the deepest diving ever recorded for a marine mammal. Narwhals typically dive to at least meters between 18 and 25 times per day every day for 6 months. Many of these dives go even deeper than meters: over half reach at least 1, meters 4, feet.

Dives to these depths last around 25 minutes, including the time spent at the bottom and the transit down and back from the surface. This is an incredible amount of time at a depth where the pressure can exceed PSI atmospheres and life exists in complete darkness. Narwhals travel to depths where there is intense pressure and no oxygen, which requires special adaptations for survival.

The pressure problem is in part solved by having a compressible rib cage which is flexible and can be squeezed as the water depth increases. Narwhals also need mechanisms for bringing along as much oxygen as they can from the surface. They have a few solutions. Muktuk, the name for raw skin and blubber, is considered a delicacy. Blubber is different than most types of fat. Blubber is much thicker and contains many more blood vessels than the fat found in land animals, including humans.

It is illegal to buy or sell bowhead whale or Cook Inlet beluga whale meat or muktuk. Edible portions of other threatened or endangered marine mammals may be sold, but only by Alaska Natives in Native towns or villages for Native consumption. In my head a chant began: Chew! Somehow, I downed the lump. The scientists mercifully helped me finish the rest. I never braved a meal of kiviak but before leaving Greenland I did dine on a reindeer filet actually delicious , reindeer jerky not much different from beef and fresh-caught beluga meat and mattak.

Once or twice, I dodged offers to try more local dishes.