For Alex Ootoowak of Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet), watching speckled gray narwhals glide through the ice during hunting season was a defining childhood memory. Narwhals once moved through those waters in dense, seemingly endless streams, and hunters in his community learned to be extremely quiet because the whales are highly sensitive to disturbance.
More than 80,000 narwhals live mainly in northeastern Canada and Greenland. For Inuit communities around Mittimatalik, narwhal meat has been a dietary and cultural staple for centuries, supplying protein, iron and vitamin C, with hunting managed by local and federal authorities. Ootoowak says the hunt is a key part of staying healthy and connected to the land and culture.
Over the past two decades, however, those dense migrations thinned. Hunters noticed whales getting skinnier and harder to catch. Local counts that exceeded 20,000 in the early 2000s had fallen to about 2,000 by 2021 — roughly a 90 percent drop. Scientists point to climate change altering ice, water temperatures and food webs, but the rapid decline coincided with another major change: a sharp rise in shipping traffic.
A port opened in 2015 to serve a nearby mine operated by Baffinland. Within two years, roughly 4 million tons of iron ore were being moved through waters near Mittimatalik and underwater noise levels rose substantially. Concerned residents and scientists responded by installing acoustic monitoring to track how the new soundscape affected marine life.
Ootoowak and Kristin Westdal of Oceans North began with two listening stations in Milne Inlet and later partnered with acoustics experts at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. They lowered hydrophones through the ice to depths of about 800 meters and recorded continuously. The recordings captured marine sounds — seals and foraging narwhals — alongside the low-frequency rumble of ship engines.
A study published in 2025 found that narwhals either moved away or stopped calling when vessels came within about 20 to 40 kilometers (12–24 miles). The animals reacted at noise levels below 120 decibels, a disturbance threshold more commonly associated with larger whale species. Hunters reported comparable reactions: when vessels revved engines, narwhals moved off, ceased feeding and avoided deep foraging dives, eventually learning to stay clear of heavily used shipping channels while boats were present.
Where displaced narwhals go remains uncertain. During a 2024 visit to northern Greenland, Ootoowak heard from Greenlandic hunters that unfamiliar, longer, skinnier narwhals began appearing around the same time shipping increased near Mittimatalik; those whales were described as tasting different and being easier to catch. Outi Tervo of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources has documented that shipping and exploration noise can make narwhals stop foraging, which could explain poorer body condition, but she has not found definitive evidence that Canadian narwhals relocated en masse to Greenland.
Narwhals depend on echolocation to find prey and navigate; hearing is as crucial to them as sight is to humans. Sounds that mask or disrupt echolocation can leave narwhals ‘ready to escape’ and unable to feed effectively. Their habitat options are limited — they are specialized for Arctic conditions and cannot simply move to warmer seas — so protecting quiet areas is important for their survival and for communities that rely on them.
The acoustic monitoring helped spur mitigation. Baffinland adopted measures including reduced ship speeds to about 9 knots, fixed routing and stricter rules for icebreaker use. Some cruise operators agreed to speed limits and no-go zones. Those steps, along with ongoing dialogue among industry, governments and Inuit communities, appear to be producing early benefits: hunters reported a better 2025 fall hunt than in recent years.
Scientists warn that as sea ice retreats, maritime traffic through Arctic passages is likely to increase, bringing more cruise ships, pleasure craft and commercial shipping. Westdal and others say stronger oversight, collaboration with local communities and more data are essential to manage noise pollution before it causes further harm. Policies and regulations tailored to the Arctic’s unique environment will be critical to protecting narwhals and other species as the region opens up.