Rarely has footage of fishing caused such a stir in the scientific community.
However, the aerial video of a pod of narwhals using their long tusks, which has earned them the nickname Unicorn of the Sea, to knock some Arctic cod senseless and easier for consumption has drawn attention from around the globe.
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“There’s been a debate for 400 years about what those tusks are used for,” said University of Windsor assistant biology professor Nigel Hussey, who was part of the team of researchers who shot the video using drones.
“It’s an iconic animal because of what is essentially an erupted tooth. There’s been many hypothesis, but no one has observed or proven anything specifically.
“This footage is the first time we have a direct observation of the tusk being used for a specific behaviour.”
The video was shot last August in Tremblay Sound, Nunavut. It’s just being released this month in advance of a scientific paper.
The World Wildlife Fund has posted a clip of the video on its website.
Hussey said previous theories about the tusks use have included sexual selection, weapons and to aid the whales’ navigation skills.
Narwhals are found in Canada’s Arctic waters and along the coastlines of Greenland and Russia. The mammals grow to between four and six metres in length and weigh about 750 kilograms.
The tusk is actually a tooth that grows through the lower lip and can reach nearly three metres long.
Hussey said the video is significant from both the perspective of the animal’s behaviour and the assumptions scientists can make based on data that infers behaviour.
“It’s been assumed they’re not feeding much in the summer grounds and when they feed it’s at depth,” Hussey said. “We have footage showing narwhals feeding in their summer grounds and right at the surface.
“This observation highlights the need for a complimentary approach to research. We have to validate the behaviour that models are depicting.
“The drones were a wonderful help with that direct observation,” he said.
Hussey has spent several weeks in each of the last three summers as part of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans research team studying the narwhal population. The focus of the study is to maintain a healthy population of the whales, so acceptable quotas for hunting can be set for the various Inuit communities.
Hussey’s area of expertise is in tracking the animals by attaching electronic devices.
“Narwhals are very shy and don’t like approaching boats, so it makes it very complex to work with them,” Hussey said.
“On the day we got the footage, we could see from our camp on shore a lot of thrashing around in the sound. There were also a lot of birds about.
“When you see that, that usually means there’s Arctic cod near the surface. The cod is the hinge to the whole system.”
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Two drones were sent out and recorded multiple narwhals using their tusks to stun the cod and eat them. Individual whales also performed the task repeatedly.
“It’s pretty amazing to see the tusk used in such an agile way by the whales,” Hussey said.
“There was a belief that it could be used for fishing, but we were thinking more in a spearing fashion.”
Hussey said now the question is whether this behaviour is limited to just this pod of narwhals — as a result of self-taught behaviour — or common to all the species.
“It’s been pretty exciting hearing all the feedback,” said Hussey, who will go back to Tremblay Sound for six weeks this summer. “There’s definitely been a bit of a buzz.”