Worldwide there are only about 50,000 to 80,000 narwhals, with about two-thirds of these whales summering in the fjords and inlets of Nunavut in northern Canada. Scientists are hoping to learn more about narwhals through a new effort to track them as they move around the icy waters of northern Canada, as well as more about how declining amounts of sea ice are affecting the creatures.

The new project tagged nine narwhals in Tremblay Sound off the coast of the northern province of Nunavut back in August, fitting them with a satellite radio that has a transmitter mounted with Teflon rods to the blubber near the whale's dorsal area. It is approx. the size of a Blackberry mobile with a little transmitter the length of a pencil. When a narwhal comes to surface, the radio unit contacts with the air and activates the signal transmission. The animal's location is then sent via satellite to the researchers. Of those nine whales fitted with the device, seven still have trackers that are transmitting information. For the others, the system likely malfunctioned or fell off. Eventually all of the trackers will be slowly expelled by the animals' immune system. While seven whales isn't a huge sample size, a lot of information will be gained by watching where the whales go and the depth of water over which they're spending the dark days of winter.

In addition to the basic coordinates, digital sensors also record the depth and the duration of each whale's dive. From that information, scientists can infer what the whales are eating during different times of the year, and how the thickness of sea ice in different parts of the Arctic impacts their behaviour and can also be used to make a case for keeping these northern waters free from oil and gas exploration.

Since narwhals are both protected and acoustically sensitive, knowing their locations could help the government make better decisions to preserve marine environments.