Trace element and stable isotope analysis elucidate stock structure in a narwhal (Monodon monoceros) population with no genetic substructure

• Main Authors: Watt, Cortney, Hornby, Claire, Ferguson, Steven H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: NRC Research Press (a division of Canadian Science Publishing) 2019
• Subjects: Admiralty Inlet; Arctic; Baffin Bay; Canada; Eclipse Sound; Jones Sound; Somerset Island; Baffin; Monodon monoceros; narwhal*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/97105; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjz-2018-0307

Chemical composition of tissues acts a biological tag to discriminate among groups of animals that inhabit different areas. In Canada, subsistence hunting of the Baffin Bay narwhal (Monodon monoceros Linnaeus, 1758) population is managed as stocks represented by summer aggregations. However, narwhals are highly mobile and hunted during the migration while stocks mix. Thus, information that can help managers decipher the stock origin of hunted individuals to prevent overexploitation of animals adapted to particular summering grounds is needed. Stable isotope and trace element analyses were conducted on narwhal skin tissues from five stocks in the eastern Canadian Arctic from 1990-2015. Discriminant analysis showed there was a significant difference between Admiralty Inlet and Eclipse Sound stocks in the summer residency period and both differed from Jones Sound and Somerset Island. During the migration season, there was more overlap and less distinction among stocks, but 75% of animals were classified correctly to their defined stocks in both periods. Together stable isotope and trace element analyses are useful for delineating stocks, and could be used to complement other stock discrimination approaches. The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author.