Are specific characteristics/traits being targeted?
Unknown/not recorded
Purpose of Use
Basic subsistence (meeting day to day essential needs)
Additional Details (if available)
Meat and skin are consumed locally or distributed within Greenland. Tusks are generally sold and resold by a number of intermediaries. Tusks reach the final consumer both as whole tusks and pieces used for artwork.
What is the main end use for any living organisms, parts or products taken/extracted?
The meat, skin and tusks are sold legally within Greenland. The skin is considered a delicacy with high cultural value and high demand within Greenland. Prior to the export ban in 2006, tusks, and artwork from tusks, where exported legally, mainly as personal items bought in Greenland. Export is now prohibited
Provide Details of resource rights regime where relevant
To our knowledge, there are no statistics about narwhal products smuggled out of Greenland. But given the lack of systematic control in harbours and airports, it is not impossible that a number of narwhal items leave the island unnoticed.
Local people (e.g., individuals, communities, co-operatives)
Is the use part of a strategy to generate conservation incentives, to finance conservation, or to improve tolerance/stewardship?
Unknown/not recorded
Is there evidence that the use is affecting the conservation status of the species? HIDE
Unknown/not recorded
Is there evidence that the use is affecting natural selection?
Unknown/not recorded
Is there evidence that the use is affecting poaching of illegal wildlife trade?
Unknown/not reported
Is there any evidence that this use of the species is having a knock-on effect on the status of non-target species
Unknown/not recorded
Unknown/not recorded
Details of assessment carried out
We have been unable to provide a positive NDF for narwhals in Greenland because the catches in the west are larger than what was recommended by the Scientific Working Group of the JCNB. The current recommended takes are much lower than the catches before the introduction of quotas, and hunters are very reluctant to accept such a large reduction; they encounter narwhals often and consider them abundant. In the end, the government sets quotas that are a compromise between the scientific advice and the hunter’s knowledge. in accordance with the precautionary principle, the current biological advice is conservative.
Has a valuation of financial flows from this use at the site/national/international level been recorded