Recent Developments in the Commerce in Narwhal Ivory from the Canadian Arctic

Abstract

Inuit in Canada kill several hundred narwhals, Monodon monoceros, in most years. Narwhals supplied various staples in the traditional subsistence economy. Today the main products are muktaaq and ivory. The large tusks of adult males are sold in a specialty souvenir market both inside Canada and in the global marketplace. The price of narwhal ivory has increased substantially over the past 25 yr, with steep increases in 1967, 1972, and the late 1970s to early 1980s. It crashed in 1983/84 due to a ban on importation by the European Economic Community (EEC), but it has recovered since then.

Canadian narwhal ivory traditionally was exported to the United Kingdom, then often re-exported. The EEC ban closed the direct link with the United Kingdom. Consequently, new markets developed in Japan and Switzerland. Narwhal hunting remains an important source of food and cash income for residents of some coastal communities in the eastern Canadian Arctic and Greenland. The international ivory trade provides an incentive to procure large tusks, and this may strongly influence the nature and intensity of the hunt. Market intervention and price instability have had serious economic ramifications for Inuit communities in the past, and they are likely to affect the costs and rewards of narwhal hunting in the future as well.