Narwhals are animals known as the unicorns of the sea. Classified as the Monodon Monoceros, the narwhal has a long tusk extending from the left side of its mouth. They live in the deep waters near Greenland, Russia, and Canada. Humans, Greenland Sharks, and killer whales cause a large percentage of narwhal deaths. These creatures are endangered, yet what saves them from being destroyed is their strong, lithe, spiraling tusk.

Narwhals are classified as Monodon Monoceros, Latin for “one tooth, one horn.” Narhval is Norwegian for “corpse whale.” The definition of “corpse whale” comes from its mottled coloration suggesting a bloated corpse. Narwhals are included in the white whale family, along with the beluga, but narwhals are actually covered with spots colored black, white, gray-green, and cream. Newborns are dappled gray-brown and white spots come with age. At birth, calves are about five feet long and one hundred eighty pounds. Male narwhals can reach up to sixteen feet long, excluding the horn, which is about eight to nine feet long, and weigh around three thousand pounds. Females are around thirteen feet long, do not have tusks, and weigh around two thousand pounds. Adult males and females are usually dark on their head, especially the top of the head and the upper and lower jaws. Unlike most other whales, narwhals have no dorsal fin. Instead of a dorsal fin, they have a low bumpy ridge beginning at about the midpoint of the back and continuing the fluke, the lobes of a whale's tail.

The tusks, giving narwhals the name sea unicorn, are actually a tooth that can reach up to nine feet long and can weigh up to twenty pounds. Males and females are born with two teeth pointing forward in the upper jaw. The left tooth of the male grows long and spirals counter-clockwise toward the tip. On rare occasions, there have been narwhals with twin tusks. Research on narwhals supports the idea that the tusk is both a weapon and a symbol of dominance in ritual displays. The tusk is used as an icebreaker or an instrument to poke breathing holes in the ice, a rake to stir up the sea bottom for food, and to skewer and impale prey species. One hundred out of every three hundred and four males tusks are broken, and this is usually the result of fighting. Narwhal tusks can heal themselves. Newman, a whale expert, suggests, “If the tusk breaks, it is possible that infection is avoided because of dentine deposits which fill the broken end. This reparative function could explain descriptions by old whalers of narwhals with broken tusks exhibiting a ‘plug’ in the broken end.” (Newman, 2015) Tusks sold for $1.25 a pound in 1962, in 1974 the price went up to $25 a pound, and in 1976, it was $35. Hunters of narwhals have sold tusks for $800 or more if the tusk was perfect. The tusks are so valuable today that one was recently sold in New York for $4,500. At one time tusks were worth ten times their weight in gold. A whale scientist once said, “The Prince of Saxony paid 100,000 talers for a ‘unicorn’ horn, and Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, settled a million-dollar debt to the Margrave of Bayreuth by presenting him with two ‘unicorn’ horns.” (Beummer, 2015)

Narwhals are migratory whales of the Arctic Sea. They are mostly sighted in Greenland and Canada. They inhabit bays and inlets in the warmer months, moving south into deeper water when the ice begins to form. The present number of narwhals are thirty thousand, most of which live in Baffin Bay-Davis Strait. The number in Baffin Bay-Davis Strait is about twenty thousand. Behavior is a unique characteristic of narwhals. Another reason Narhval in Norway means corpse whale is that narwhals often swim belly up. Narwhals swim in pods of twenty to two thousand. Small pods have mostly females with calves and one tusked male. The pods usually swim slowly, but when pursued they swim at high speeds. Narwhals have no particular breeding season. Most births are in the summer months when the fjords and bays are free of ice and the females can take refuge in protected areas. Mothers calve every three years after a gestation period of about fifteen months. Calves stay with their mother for as long as twenty months. Narwhals make many different sounds from shrill whistles to low growls. It still does not make as many sounds as its fellow white whale, the beluga. Watkins and Colleagues, a group that studies whales, concluded, “Monodon is much less noisy than the beluga and appears to have a smaller variety of sounds.” (Watkins and Colleagues, 2015) Narwhals eat fish like Arctic cod, Greenland Halibut, flounder, squid, octopus, and Pelagic Shrimp. 

The narwhal’s main predators are killer whales, Greenland Sharks, Cyamus Monodontids (the narwhal louse), and humans. Narwhals can defend themselves with their tusks from killer whales and Greenland Sharks, but not from humans such as the Inuit Hunters. The narwhal is being killed off faster than it can reproduce. Inuit villages have an annual limit of five hundred forty-two. A Polar Eskimo may hunt for seventy-two hours at a time. They hunt not only narwhals but also walrus and seal as well. The World Market had a drop in sealskin prices and that has enhanced the economic importance of narwhals to these hunters. When the hunters sell tusks they use the money to buy heating oil, radios, motorboats, installments on village houses and boats, gasoline, ammunition, cloth, and other items that help families live in the icy polar environment. Greenlanders and Baffin Islanders like the delicious skin that is rich in vitamins, and the concentration of vitamin C helps prevent scurvy. On a full-grown narwhal, there are about two hundred to three hundred pounds of skin. The waters in exploratory mining areas inhabited by narwhals are being polluted may prove to be an even greater hazard to the species. 

Narwhals are migratory white whales that live in the Arctic Ocean, near Greenland, Russia, and Canada. They eat fish and other small sea animals. A long tooth, often mistaken for a magical horn, grows from the male narwhal’s upper lip. Killer whales, sharks, and humans prey upon narwhals, making narwhals endangered. People used to think that the narwhal was a unicorn of the sea. The tusk was once sold for its magical properties and to pay debts. As a result of hunting and pollution, narwhal numbers are quickly diminishing.