Narwhals are known as “unicorns of the sea” for their long spiral tusks — actually teeth — which lend them a mythical appearance. But a group of these otherworldly marine mammals were recently given a decidedly earthly role: Arctic scientists.
Researchers fitted six narwhals with satellite transmitters, then tracked the animals for three years as they roamed the rugged coast of East Greenland and swam deep into its labyrinthine fjord system — the largest in the world. Their job was to collect data on the state of the ocean in this remote but crucial region.
The information they brought back provides yet more concerning evidence about what’s happening in the Arctic. It reveals that relatively warm, salty water from the Atlantic Ocean is reaching far inside the region’s fjords — giant valleys filled with water and ice — where it’s able to eat into glaciers and threaten the ice sheet they protect.
“The findings are very concerning, as they indicate the rapid melting of the marine-terminating glaciers,” said Eric Achterberg, a professor at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany, who was not involved in the study. This new data underscores an ongoing trend, he added.
