Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

First Photographs of Trapped Whales

By

On Saturday I reported that 200 whales are trapped in ice in the Canadian Arctic.

Today I received photographs of one of the groups of Narwhal trapped in one of the 11 open holes.

The photographs were taken by Brian Koonoo.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Neville says

    I’m not a squemish bloke by any means but isn’t nature cruel at times?
    This would have to be the whale equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel.

  3. bill-tb says

    This is what happens to you when you believe in Al Gore. Who wants to bet, the whales were reading about the ice free Arctic in their NYTimes, when they set out on their fall adventure.

    ^_^

  5. Patrick B says

    Nice dead and dying whale porn. Bet there’s a few regulars who are saving these piccies to their hard drive. You know who you are.

  6. Jabba the Cat says

    @ Patrick B 12:08

    “Nice dead and dying whale porn. Bet there’s a few regulars who are saving these piccies to their hard drive. You know who you are.”

    Jabba would prefer ecomentalists or christians in the amphitheatre, but hey, you can’t be too fussy these days…

  7. David says

    This is no more cruel than harvesting corn. The helpless stalks of corn, unable to flee, being mercilessly slaughtered by the combine. I’m sorry {choke}… I can’t continue.

  10. JMD says

    Dunno how this could possibly happen since the Goreacle and his proselytizers have pronounced the Arctic Ocean ice-free. Anyway the polar bears are happy. Dinner is served.

  11. Jabba the Cat says

    @ Ann Novek 6:18 pm

    “The whales seemed to trapped quite a long time since they have very little blubber.”

    Jabba is quite partial to a slab of lean whale steak, medium rare preferred.

  12. Avatar photojennifer says

    Following on from Ann’s comment. Brian Koonoo has written to me explaining , “there were 23 open holes in total, not 11 as previously thought”.

  13. Ann Novek says

    ” “It’s just a misfortune of nature.” Mr. Richards said one hunter told him they had pulled 11 dead baby narwhals out of the air holes. The whales that have been harvested don’t have much fat, an early sign of starvation.

    Joseph Maktar of the Pond Inlet Hunters and Trappers Association said something like this happened once before.

    “Based on our hunters’ knowledge there were trapped whales in 1943. And [the community] harvested them until they were all gone,” he said.

    Mr. Maktar said that during the summer and fall narwhal are hunted from boats. But usually by the end of September, the whales have migrated out of Eclipse Sound and are far beyond the reach of local hunters.

    “We can blame it on global warming,” he said of the current situation.

    Mr. Maktar said the ice pan formed late this year, toward the end of October, and the whales stayed in Eclipse Sound too long. When the ice formed, it came in fast and suddenly closed off all exits, trapping the whales.”

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081126.wwhales26/BNStory/National

  14. Eimi-Jean says

    This is inhumane, not satisfactory and cruel to both the narwhals and mother nature. You can’t just look at this picture and think that it is funny because it is not funny, it is not polite and I love Narwhals. I would say shame on those people trapping, killing and eating narwhals. And I know those people have to survive but I just can’t tolerate this. 🙁

  15. Jennifer Marohasy says

    Just filing this here:

    Hi Jennifer, this is Richard Rivera at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We are currently working on an article on Narwhal whales and it seems you might be one of a very small group of people that have pictures of Narwhal entrapments. I found your blog posting at http://jennifermarohasy.com/2008/11/first-photograph-of-trapped-whales/ through a google search. We are very interested in using some of the images posted on that page and would love to know if you know the contact info. for the photographer or a way for us to be able to get these images ourselves.

    Thank you in advance and I hope to hear from you soon.

    Richard Rivera
    Web Administrator/Production Design Artist
    2020 Company, LLC.