NAMMCO-JCNB Joint Scientific Working Group on Narwhal & Beluga

The NAMMCO-JCNB Joint Working Group (JWG) on narwhal and beluga met online from 26–30 June 2020 under the leadership of Co-Chairs Cortney Watt (JCNB) and Roderick Hobbs (NAMMCO).

The Terms of Reference for this online meeting were to: a) review information on abundance, distribution, movements and harvest locations of narwhal and beluga; b) update and review the narwhal allocation model to assign harvested animals to individual summer stocks. Given the restrictions on time associated with this needing to be an online meeting, three additional terms of reference were deferred to the next JWG meeting, which it is hoped can take place in person in 2021. This included: a) review the latest abundance estimate for East Greenland narwhal; b) assess the impacts of climate change on narwhal and beluga movements, distribution, population dynamics, habitat and hunt methods, timing and location; c) revise advice models to incorporate climate change impacts where information is available and identify additional information requirements.

The meeting was open to national participants, approved observers and invited experts. The meeting documents, including agenda and participant list are available here.