As the open-water season becomes longer in the Arctic, little is known about how increasing vessel traffic affects marine mammals, but a new study is shedding some light.
The article, published by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, discusses the vulnerability of marine mammals to vessel traffic in the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route during September.
The authors examined 80 subpopulations of seven species — beluga whales, narwhals, bowhead whales, ringed seals, bearded seals, walruses and polar bears — and assessed their vulnerability based on their exposure and sensitivity to vessel traffic.
They found that more than half (42) of the subpopulations were exposed to this traffic in either one or both of the waterways. And, based on their findings, they estimate that narwhals
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