Tragedy for hundreds of narwhals trapped in ice off Baffin Island

I thought that all the ice was melting up there due to global warming.

Tragedy?

If you're a vegetarian, then you've got the right to consider the killing of any animal a tragedy. I'm not a vegetarian, but I strongly respect their ethical decision.

...but for anyone who plans on eating turkey tomorrow, please shelve your moral outrage and crocodile tears and remember: MEAT is ANIMALS.

If you enjoy a hamburger or a slice of turkey, then don't get yourself worked up over the fact that narwhales are being hunted.

At least animals that are hunted get to enjoy living in the wild. Hunters are far more ethical consumers of meat than most of us who buy our chicken at a supermarket.

I have no more sympathy for the Inuit.

None.

Murderers.

"I thought that all the ice was melting up there due to global warming."

The linked article states the whales are typically gone by the end of September, but due to global warming, the ice pack formed much later this year, and when it did it closed up fast.

Nice try, though.

Harrybosch: that is Mr. Moktar's opinion. The last time this happened was in 1943. Would these mammals be that stupid? By the way, kind o' warm this past week, wasn't it? (new records for cold were set in the Boston area, but you probably didn't read about it in the Boston Globe.

Murder is the killing of one or more human beings by another human being under certain circumstances. Killing fish, birds, reptiles or animals does not count.

What the hell do you expect the Inuit people to eat? Turkey? There aren't any cattle ranches on the island coast either. Its too cold.

STOP THE ANNUAL GENOCIDE OF THE TURKEY

Have lobster!

Ok, so you go up to the north country (and I don't mean Sugar Bush) and see how long you can survive on a salad. It'll be a long drive to Whole Foods.

If the Coast Guard can send icebreakers to break ice for sealers to kill seal pups every year, they can certainly send an icebreaker to break ice to save 500 narwhals. I am thoroughly disgusted.

This is their main sources of food, this is what they have to do to survive. You try living up there as a vegetarian.

The Humane Society of the US is nothing more than an anti-hunting propaganda machine. They get Americans to donate to them by acting as if they help dogs & cats but, in fact, do not operate one shelter. Just another animal rights organization.

So what are the Inuit supposed to eat, tofu? And what of other animals that might eat the narwhals? Are they evil like the human Inuit? What are they supposed to eat?

Get a grip. Every animal in the world cannot survive the way you would like. The ones you love like the narwhal, the other whales, the polar bears all eat OTHER ANIMALS to survive. So stop the animal snobbery and get with reality.

"due to global warming, the ice pack formed much later this year"
Thats right! Every warm spell and temperature above normal is manmade "global warming" , unless the expert "scientists" used September temperatures for October....whoops!
Watch out, envirofruitcakes! Due to global warming, you soon wont have any ice in the koolaid you've been drinking!

Lifeforce is an ecology organization that protects marine wildlife in waters of Vancouver, British Columbia. First, the narwhals are not "white whales". They are dark in colour. Belugas are white. Secondly, it is major impact on a population to lose that many. It may well impact on their genetic diversity and threaten their survival.
In 1988 Russia and the US combined efforfts to free three gray whales who were trapped in ice in Alaska. They used ice breakers and helicopters to free them. The Canadian should take immediate action to save the remaining narwhals. It is their moral responsible to protect this species.

"By the way, kind o' warm this past week, wasn't it?"

"Every warm spell and temperature above normal is manmade "global warming"

How quaint that there are folks who still believe that weather = climate. Reminds me there are those who still believe the earth is flat. Nothing at all persuades them either.

In reponse to the question as to what should Inuit eat the main issue is that these "whales" are highly contaminated with pollutants such as mercury. It's not safe to eat. Although there are many vegetarian species, such as elephants and gorillas, wildlife have no choice to shop at the super market as we humans do. A vegetarian diet protects people, animals and the environment. The Global Warming caused by all transportation is at 13% but the pollution from factory farming is 18%. So protect the Inuit, the narwhals and this planet by being vegetarian - eat tofurky.

Baffin Island, like all of the extreme northern areas, is too cold to provide adequate supplies of farm food. It is also too far from the main supply lines to import adequate supplies of food. Traditional hunting for meat is not just a cultural, ceremonial, lifestyle event but a necessity.

What is tofurky?

Oh I guess for some of you Global Warming is too much of a fairy tale but yet, it's easy for you to believe that 2000 years ago a bearded guy was walking on water and making wine from his own blood. I mean 99% of the scientific community agrees with the GW thesis but I guess when all you listen to is Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh you come to the same conclusion over and over again: Just another Liberal Conspiracy.

Questions:
What if nobody did anything? Wouldn't the Narwhals die anyway?

Aren't Lobsters giant water bugs? Isn't the systematic killing and eating of them Insecticide? Hug a Bug!

What ever happened to the Global Warming crusade led by Al Gore? Why was this abandoned in favor of Climate Change? Global warming has been shown to be a farce. The warmest decade on record is still the 1930s. Last year was the coolest in decades and this year cooler than last year.
It beacme necessary to call it something else. Climate change works because it is a very flexible term. It can encompass every change in weather patterns. Global warming was too restrictive. The meaning couldn't be changed to account for the cooling we have experience the last two years.
Climate change has been occuring throughout the history of the planet without intervention from man. Does man contribute to climate change now? Its very likely. However the affect man has on the climate still pales considerably to natures affect. Solar activity has changed quite a bit over the last year and a half. But I suppose that has little to do with our climate or the cooling we are experiencing. What about deforestation? You don't hear much about that from these zealots. Probably because much of it is occuring in third world countries and they are off limits.
Also, why are so many scientists who were strong advocates of the global warming scare jumping off the global warming/climate change bandwagon?

"How quaint that there are folks who still believe that weather = climate."

So was it the "weather " or the "climate" , that was warmest in the 1930s?
Is it the "weather" or the "climate" that has been getting colder since 2003?
In the past four years -- the period corresponding to reduced solar activity -- all of the rise in global temperatures since 1979 has disappeared.

"Ok, so you go up to the north country (and I don't mean Sugar Bush) and see how long you can survive on a salad. It'll be a long drive to Whole Foods."

That's good stuff. I'd like to see a vegetarian figure out how the Inuits can enjoy the same diet as they do. I'm sure its quite easy to find a nice grocery store with all kinds of reasonable, healtly vegetarian food, like tofu and nuts on Baffin Island.

"Ok, so you go up to the north country (and I don't mean Sugar Bush) and see how long you can survive on a salad. It'll be a long drive to Whole Foods."

That's good stuff. I'd like to see a vegetarian figure out how the Inuits can enjoy the same diet as they do. I'm sure its quite easy to find a nice grocery store with all kinds of reasonable, healtly vegetarian food, like tofu and nuts on Baffin Island.

"The Global Warming caused by all transportation is at 13% but the pollution from factory farming is 18%. So protect the Inuit, the narwhals and this planet by being vegetarian - eat tofurky"

That is correct. Which is why Al Gore, Leo Dicarpiro, Nancy Pelosi and all the other Do-gooders who lecture us about "saving the planet" are all vegetarians.

Oh, wait. They aren't vegetarians. Never mind. I guess "climate change" isn't really a crisis.

Meat eaters are murderers- the inuit could grow vegetables and eat those instead

The Canadian DFO is a joke. They care nothing about conservation, only about keeping every Inuit, fishermen and hunter happy so that they can get their votes. The Inuit might not be vegetarians, but at the rate they are killing everything, they will have to figure out a way to be in a couple of decades. Between climate change and over-hunting/fishing, there won't be much to kill anyway.

Narwhals

Peace cannot be kept by force.
It can only be achieved by understanding.

A.E.

Why doe this magnificent applied Science which saves work and makes life easier
Bring us so little happiness?
The simple answer runs Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it.
A.E. CIT 1931

To the narwhals

It passed like some slow passing ship with sail unfurled
Waiting in seas by scarce a wavelet curled;
Beheld the slow star-paces of the skies overhead
And grew from strength to strength through centuries a new

God is in heaven and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few.

John B
JohnB

alll the pictures are Not true.. We in winter Time November and Decumber.
it's Cold in Pond Inlet. Allen hawkes know's it cold. and I think He Never went there.

i can only tell you folks my opinion based on what my experience is, and the work of my partner, who very well-informed as an employee for the government of nunavut. i hope you appreciate it.

first off: in iqaluit, where i live, you can have a vegetarian diet, if you so wished. no, you can't grow vegetables on the tundra, but you can by them at the store. expensive though they are, they are certainly as much within budget as anything else that can be bought. better still for those that can or so desire is the abundance of seal and other hunting game. still, though, there are some issues with "traditional" hunting: like lack of control, and certain practices, like drinking blood out from a dying seal.

as for the narwhals: yes, it seemed that they were going to perish--about 200 of them. but then, in the bloodbath that followed (apparently, it could be seen from space), more than 600 perished. i deeply question whether or not sufficient consideration was given to saving the narwhals--doing as much in any event would (from what i can tell) be a foreign and odd thing to do for the inuit. the practice here is to shoot EVERYTHING that you can when you spot it: bowhead whales, caribou, whatever. and even then, a lot gets wasted from lack of foresight. then there are instances of blatant disregard for life: just this summer, around 500 arctic charr were fished out of the sylvia grinnell river--and then tossed out on the riverbanks to rot. this was hardly talked about.

i will not point fingers at any one culture, but there is a serious disconnect here with the bureaucrats as well as the local population, either white, inuk, or whatever. just visit in the summer and notice the trash that flies by in the streets. or the oil drums just sitting in the dump. or rusted, busted up cars in scrap heaps. and then talk to people. they'll grumble about everything from greenpeace to whities to drug fiend inuit to arab cab drivers, in the end playing the game of moral indignation only in order to protect their self-interest (usually financial, which is unfortunately the greatest draw for southeners to this beautiful land).

i don't know whether or not the slaughter was justified (and PS, "murder" is semantics--ending the life of any sentient being is murder; to not recognise it as such is species-based narcism. watch "earthlings" if you want to test your views). what i CAN tell you is that, overwhelmingly, people here don't care nearly enough as they should (also, at thousands of dollars a tusk, there is veritably little incentive to look in a direction other than profit). so that means, right or wrong, apathy will in all probability win out in the long run, ...and that should scare all of us.

what do you think?

Francois

It's a matter of which species will first become extinct. The larger the marine mammal, the greater burden of heavy metals and dioxins. If people continue to believe that eating Arctic marine life bears no health risks then they will continue to become contaminated. Marine life is now so contaminated by man's penchant to destroy the planet's resources by pollution, that regularly eating fish from any waters is hazardous and I recall reading somewhere that those Inuit who are enlightened, now fear breast-feeding their babies because of their own high levels of heavy metals and the dreaded dioxins.

I think its more about the horns than about the food. I do know that the food is so very scarce abouts their home but I do think that they need to have limits in order to not wipe out the Narwhals population. If they get over a 1000.00 dollars per horn thats so much more income than most people in Los Angeles get per month. I am sure that they do not pay over 3,000 a month for rent either. Food and shelter should be number one on the list of any human being but to wipe out your food supply shouldn't just be for the understandings of an educated person...this is where I see the greed.

I cannot believe all the hate that is tossed around for the enviromentalists. People call them "Fruit Cakes" and "Freaks" just because they have love for the earth. The hunters need this earth just as much as the enviromentalists need it. Another thing is that each season the game becomes more and more scarce...this doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the hunting has just gone too far. I do understand that it does sound ridiculous when a person tells the inuits to grow veges and stop eating meat...lol. A vegetarian should know about growing conditions, and the limits of food that it would supply a family in these conditions.

Regarding #9...Does anybody have anymore info leading to any proof of this job that the Coast Gaurd does for the seal killers? I have never heard of this before. I thought that the Coast Gaurd was a bit more humane.

hey! Just look up a picture of a baby harp seal and our argument is already won! SEND ICEBREAKERS TO HELP THE FREAKIN NARWHALS!

BTW eskimo`s eat harp seals!