Narwhal Survey results due soon
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Repulse Bay (Apr 02/01) - Results of a narwhal survey in this area will soon be released and the news is expected to be good.
The 10-day survey was conducted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) last August.
The area between Repulse and Foxe Channel, including Repulse Bay, Frozen Strait and Lyon Inlet, was done in two aerial surveys. A separate survey of Foxe Channel was also conducted.
Pierre Richard, an arctic marine mammal stock assessment biologist, said one survey was conducted using a camera and the second visually.
"We photographed strips of water which are a sample of the total area," said Richard.
"The strips are added up and multiplied by an expansion factor to calculate the numbers of narwhal for the whole area and produce a numbers estimate."
Richard said there's no way to come up with an exact count and they allow a margin for error.
"Narwhal don't distribute the way that's most efficient to survey them. They distribute the way they want to."
Only animals on the surface were surveyed.
The proportion of time individual narwhals spend below the first few metres of water, where they can't be seen, has been measured in the High Arctic, but not the Repulse area.
"We're applying what we found in the High Arctic to correct the survey in order to get an estimate of the total population, not just those on the surface,"said Richard.
The DFO will the study survey during an upcoming two-day workshop in Repulse.
"What I can say, at this point, is that it does not appear there was any decline."
