Jens Jeremiassen

Uummannaq, Greenland

Interviewer: What is your most unforgettable memory of narwhals?

Jens: When I first started hunting in 1960 I killed a narwhal and lost it. That is my most unforgettable memory. And also, since I began hunting for a living I caught narwhals with rifle. But the most unforgettable memory that I have is about hunting methods that no one use anymore, which is about getting the narwhals with nets. That way I caught a narwhal. That’s unforgettable for me.

Interviewer: Did Inuit use the tusk?

Jens: Any hunter can’t see what the narwhals use their tusk for on water, but...

Interviewer: The narwhal’s tusk used by Inuit...

Jens. Yes... Inuit. Our ancestors, for instance, in the 1900s and earlier used the tusk for making tools for hunting, in many different ways. There are many things, for instance 1900s and 1600s... until 1900s they used the tusk to make hunting tools.

Interviewer: What hunting tools?

Jens: Tools for hunting. Also, in our time we use the tusk for making our hunting tools. But most of the time if the tusk can be sold, they can sell it anywhere. And most of the time, our shop also buys tusk. The hunter also seeks the best prize and seeks where to sell it expensive. They always seek where to sell it more expensive.

Interviewer: Did Inuit mark differences for different narwhals? Like the male or female with tusk?

Jens: Speaking of the narwhal, there are limits of how it is called. As we all know there are male and female narwhals. The males always get their tusk when they grow up, depending on how long the narwhal lives. Based on our knowledge as hunters, I think it grows the tusk approximately one year after it is born and you can notice it. We cannot see the growing of the tusk clearly from year to year, since the narwhal is at sea where it belongs. But, the tusks I have seen are about between 10 cm to 2 meters and 60 cm. And in my time, this year, for the first time I saw a narwhal with two tusks. It is very rare that females have a tusk and if they do, the tusk is not as long as the males’. This is what we have seen. The length of the female’s tusk is often under or over 1, 5 cm, and the qipineri (the twisted or distorted shape of the tusk) are often better proportioned or more well formed than the males. The tusk grows more twisted or more distorted – very beautifully actually. The same thing happens to the males, but the twisted shape of their tusk has lengthy intervals and grows zigzag-like, others can be just...

Interviewer: Do the narwhals know when they are hunted? If so, how do they react when you get close to them?

Jens: I can tell a true story about it. If the narwhals are not alarmed, as we hunters use to say, they are terlippoq (safe or at ease). If I can show how the animal behaves when it’s at ease by telling, I would do that. But, by telling: when the narwhals are at ease and are not alarmed, they emerge from water and moving slowly. But once they know that something is hunting them, especially when they are spread out, they pull themselves together and following each other. Then they escape once they know that they are being hunted, not necessarily as fast they can. As we hunters know, since we are the ones who make them escape, it is necessarily not always easy to catch them once they have escaped. We are able to catch them even through they have escaped. We are able to catch the animal without any difficulty, depending on how many we want to catch. Any hunter does not hunt to exceed anything. Once we have captured one group of narwhals we stop hunting the others, even through we can see many of them. One group is enough for one day. We don’t hunt all narwhals we can see, I am therefore openly against when someone accuses us for eradicating the narwhals. We hunt, depending on our needs from day to day. It’s not like we hunt the narwhals everyday. The power of the nature and the weather also limits our hunting. Sometimes a month goes by without catching any narwhal, even though they are in the vicinity and are visible. Bad weather, impossibility to be at the ice can be the reason why we don’t hunt any narwhal a whole month. We can see it, but can’t hunt it. In this matter, I always wanted to stress that nature also limits everything. I always wanted to tell this to the biologists and others who want to know more.

The biologists often try to say that the hunters hunt narwhals every day without limits, once they appear for example at Disko Bay, near Hunde Ejlande (Kitsissuarsuit). This is not true at all. As I told you before, the power of the nature also limits and protects narwhals from being hunted. Therefore, we hunters like or usually say, that the animals aren’t at risk of extinction, nor are they threatened at all. The number of narwhals isn’t falling either, because of many years of formal protective measures in Greenland. The amount of the narwhals is very stable. Speaking of the limits of hunting the narwhals, I must tell you the beginning of 1980s, when the Greenlanders began to use the trawlers. Since they began to use the trawlers in 1980s the narwhals at Disko Bay’s estuary stopped coming here. The narwhal began to leave Disko Bay’s estuary during the month of April, since 20 years ago As I said, because of the routes of trawlers, fishing in the area off the coast, and coastal vessels and other ships made the narwhals go to sea and continue moving a good distance from land. There could be many explanations of this, but I will end here.

Interviewer: Is there any difference with broken tusks that you have seen in males and females?

Jens: The narwhal lives in the Arctic and lives with the ice. Greenland can get over 30 to 40 degrees of frost. If the ice gets frozen and can’t provide air for the narwhals, the narwhal can try to appear from the ice and it could accidently break its tusk, since the ice is right upon the animal. As you can see, my tool for the television’s antenna (the tusk), it was broken when I caught it. It was already broken. We have also caught new-broken tusks. Since we began using the nets for catching the narwhals 20 years ago, we have seen narwhals that broke their tusk by trying to escape from the net. The narwhal can try to move downward and if the water isn’t deep enough, the narwhal can stick its tusk to the bottom and break it. Also if the narwhal’s tusk is long and the nets are close the beach it can easily break its tusk. Therefore, we can sometimes catch narwhals with broken tusks.

Interviewer: Are there any stories of females with a tusk in your country? If so, are there any stories of where it uses its tusk?

Jens: I can’t clearly tell you where the narwhal uses its tusk. Any hunter can’t watch a narwhal feeding deep under the sea, unless he has any tools. I think even you guys can’t see what the narwhal eat under the sea as well. I doubt that. It is its creation to have a tusk, like anything else. I don’t think it often uses the tusk for meal purposes... speaking of male and female narwhals.

Interviewer: Is the length or shape different than the males’ tusk, or in female narwhal with tusk?

Jens: I mentioned this a while ago. The tusk of a female is more twisted or distorted and better shaped. It is often a bit over 1, 5 cm. This is what I have seen in killed narwhals. These tusks are very beautiful. And when the males have become tiggak (Older narwhal), the narwhal gets a very long tusk. The tusks are better proportioned or well formed than the males’.

Interviewer: Does the females with tusk behave different than the males with tusk?

Jens: I don’t think it’s like that. As I mention it before, the tusk is their natural body part. And I have never seen a narwhal using its tusk strangely to something. I can’t, of course, follow the narwhal if it gets deep down to the sea, therefore can’t see clearly how it behaves under the sea. But, you can see the tusk sometimes when it scratches. And we can see the narwhal’s tusk once we have caught it.

Interviewer: About the shape of the tusk. Have you ever noticed that the length of the tusk can be compared to the size of its body? Can you mention some remarks?

Jens: I don’t think I can mention some differences, other than that the tusk grows when the narwhal is growing. If the narwhal has lived in some years, then it grows a longer tusk. The last tusk I saw was about 2, 60 cm and wasn’t broken. I think the reason the tusk gets that long is because the narwhal has lived in many years. When they live in many years, their tusks grow longer as well.

Interviewer: Can you compare the size of the tusk and the size of the narwhal each other? For instance, do they match?

Jens: It’s not like that, I think. It depends also on the health of the narwhal, like we depend on our health while growing… how our parts develop. If the narwhal grows up in wealth with good food and in peace, I think it can develop its tusk suitable to its body.

Interviewer: Have you noticed or heard tales of the tusk’s length or shape the last generations?

Jens: No, I never heard of anyone telling. I listened otherwise to the many hunters that I’ve met.

Interviewer: Have you seen or heard of anyone with a tusk on the right side among the males and females? If so, how often does this occur?

Jens: I often see tusks growing from the left or right side. I think the first one growing grows first… sometimes it grows from the left side, sometimes from the right side. Perhaps it depends on how the tusk comes through. The first tusk that penetrates is the one that will grow. It is also rare for the illuttoortut (a narwhal with two tusks) to grow the same length. These are very rare. In my 50 years of life as a hunter, I only once experienced one narwhal with two tusks. Even through I caught up to 500 tusks together with other hunters.

Interviewer: How can you compare the narwhal’s two tusks being on the right or left side?

Jens: It is difficult to compare it. For instance, the walrus also have tusks and their tusks are always two. You can compare it to this. But it’s another thing… the tusks of the walrus doesn’t grow as or like narwhals. Most of the narwhals have only one tusk, a sharpened one.

Interviewer: Have you seen a narwhal using its tusk strangely?

Jens: No, I have never seen such thing. The sea near us is very deep and we don’t always get to see the narwhals being here in a long time. Therefore, I can’t tell what it uses its tusk for, and have never clearly seen narwhal that uses its tusk in a peculiar fashion.

Interviewer: Do narwhals with tusks behave strangely when you hunt them?

Jens: It is very rare that we see a narwhal behaving strangely when we hunt them, but the narwhal escapes when it knows that it is being hunted. The strange behavior that I saw once is the narwhal appearing from water to breathe, even though it is being hunted and shot at. It did that until it was dead. It’s like that isn’t afraid of dying. The beluga is not like that. The narwhal sometimes flows up the surface of the water (Kussimmilertarput, flowing up the surface of the water), like we hunters use to say… while it is still being hunted. According to the elders we have heard that, when it appears from the water and floats, it has fallen asleep and just floats. It is not often that narwhals behave like that when they are being hunted, floating in the water, without worrying about the ones hunting it. When the narwhal behaves like that, we can come to it with our boat but not in a kayak, and harpoon the unwounded narwhal and catch it.

Interviewer: Do you hunt the females? If so, is their behavior stranger than the males’?

Jens: Of course we hunt them. But their behavior isn’t stranger than the males. It’s just the same.

Interviewer: Have you ever seen narwhals with tusks fighting, and if so, did they use their tusks? Are there any stories of narwhals fighting in your area?

Jens: No, no stories of fighting narwhals. And if we ever saw any, we would share the story for amusement purposes. I think the narwhals do not get angry.

Interviewer: Do you think the narwhals use their tusk to attack or to protect it self?

Jens: I don’t think so, and I can tell you again that the narwhal have its tusk as some natural body part. We have never seen narwhal using its tusk to protect it self.

Interviewer: Now, about their food. How do the narwhal catch its meal?

Jens: My knowledge would enhance, if I could get deep down to the sea with the narwhal and watch it feeding. But, I think I should clarify that any hunter can’t dive deep down into the sea and watch the narwhal feeding. I don’t think they could. As we usually say here in our country, since our country is the place where you qamavoq (wait for animals to appear), depending on where the tide and water moves, the non-migrating narwhals not far from our country can be seen. And if they get down deep to the sea more than once and hold their breath in a long time, then we know that they are at the place where they eat. We know that they are here to eat. They eat whatever that appears in the coast of Greenland. They eat all fish they see, shrimps... from the small ones to fishes.

Interviewer: What kinds of food have you seen narwhals feeding on?

Jens: I have never seen it feeding, but we can see what kinds of food they have been eating once we have opened the stomach. It often has been eating different fishes, rose fish, Greenland halibut, Atlantic wolfish and shrimps.

Interviewer: Is the food the same among the ones with tusk, females and youngsters?

Jens: It’s the same. Their food is various fishes.

Interviewer: Do the narwhals try to eat in large quantities? If so, what kinds of fish do they hunt?

Jens: The sea area near us where the narwhals roam isn’t deep. Therefore it is really difficult for me to answer the question. The fishes I mentioned before are the ones they eat.

Interviewer: How many stomachs of narwhals have you opened? What is usually inside it?

Jens: I have ripped many stomachs off... most of the time we don’t have time to open the stomach, if we have caught many narwhals. But often, if we do open it we can always see what it is inside. As said, it contains these various fishes.

Interviewer: Do the ones with tusk use them to catch their meal?

Jens: I don’t know... I don’t think it’s like that at all. I will say it again, that the tusk is the narwhal’s natural body part. I don’t think they use their tusk for meal purposes.

Interviewer: Does the narwhals fight for the food?

Jens: I have never seen narwhals fighting for the food. And let me say again, that I can’t get deep down to the sea with the narwhals, therefore can’t see when or if the narwhals fight. They feed deep down at sea near our area.

Interviewer: Have you heard of narwhals with several tusks? If so, please tell the story.

Jens: No, never heard stories of a narwhal with several tusks, only a narwhal with two tusks and with only one tusk. I never heard of a narwhal with three tusks. I don’t think such thing exists.

Interviewer: Do the narwhals behave strangely if there are females nearby?

Jens: I don’t know. They often move together… narwhals and belugas. But sometimes there are only the elders and sometimes only the females that move together. We see such things. Sometimes there are a lot of elders without any females near them, and sometimes females with their offspring.

Interviewer: Now, about their arrivals and their divisions. When narwhals move together, how many are they?

Jens: Normally, they are from 10 to 15 narwhals. And they move together next to each other.

Interviewer: Do they sometimes move alone?

Jens: Yes, there are of course some. For instance, when they are on the way from North Greenland to south and arrive, the females are often the first ones to arrive. We have noticed that. The males usually come sometime after.

Interviewer: When they are on the way, do they move and focus on, for instance, sex, age or other characteristics?

Jens: When they arrive, sometimes there is a first one behind the other, and behind it there are the ones following the first one. The leading narwhal is a female or a young one. They follow this leader on the way, unless it is disturbed. If it is disturbed the others notices this and it seems that the leader notifies the others of the situation.

Interviewer: What kinds of whales (narwhal, beluga) move together normally; for instance females, the offspring, the narwhals and so on?

Jens: It is perhaps ordinary that the ones with offspring move together, with very few males with them. Like I said, they are many females with offspring. And also, somewhere else the males move together with many other elders.

Interviewer: When the whales are on the way do the narwhals place themselves differently compared to belugas, females, offspring and young ones?

Jens: I don’t think it‘s like that. They roam in the sea they are at, and move in intervals. And when they are near ice, they touch each other. Of course they move together with a good distance from each other or near together. But, not touching each other.

Interviewer: How often do the narwhals die in accidents related to too much ice around them?

Jens: We can see when narwhals have lost weight obviously related to too much ice and difficulties of catching food at the place they hunt... speaking of Disko Bay. For instance in 1970s and 1980s during the coldest periods, when a small area of water opens in the entrance of Disko Bay, a lot of narwhals get out from there, and they have obviously lost a lot of weight. The hunters carefully hunt such narwhals because he knows how things work. They begin to hunt them once they know everything is fine.

Interviewer: Does the weather cause narwhals to be unable to flee?

Jens: I have noticed that a narwhal is very clever when it’s migrating. It seems that it knows about the ice, wind and cold weather. When the sea is freezing in the Disko Bay area, the narwhals get away from this area, away from the frozen ice...like they know that the weather is changing. They also migrate depending on the current. When it knows where the wind is going to blow, the narwhal turns against the wind. Then it knows how the water is around it.

Interviewer: How often do the males and females migrate together? And in what given time do they migrate separately?

Jens: I don’t think there is any correct answer for this. I can only mention that narwhals migrate depending on the water, and how the weather is like. They migrate depending on how the weather is, how the wind is, and depending on in which period it is (during the year). Sometimes males and females together...

Interviewer: Do you recognize some of the narwhals? Do they return every year?

Jens: They return every year, and they give birth from year to year. Of course you can’t recognize narwhals migrating at this specific place like it does the year before. I doubt that. They are that many... they return from year to year. You can’t recognize a narwhal because they are so many of them. I don’t think you can do that.

Interviewer: About the broken tusks. What is the reason behind broken tusks?

Jens: I think they break their tusks when they are around the ice. They might having trouble finding open water, and can break the tusk if they don’t fit to pass the ice. They might also have broken it during their search for food at low water. Also as mentioned, when they are caught by the nets they might try to get away towards the bottom of the sea and accidently break the tusk. These things are obvious.

Interviewer: Have you ever heard of or seen a broken tusk replaced by another tusk?

Jens: No, I haven’t seen any. But I have seen a newly broken tusk... where you still can see the meat getting out from the tusk. That was the narwhal I have caught... by nets.

Interviewer: How often do you see a newly broken tusk?

Jens: It is rare. I think only once...the one I have caught by the nets. I have only seen a new-broken tusk from the narwhal I have caught by the nets. The broken tusks are not rare, you can always see them from month to month.

Interviewer: Do narwhals behave differently when they have broken a tusk? Compared to others with an unbroken one.

Jens: No, they don’t behave differently. They only broke their tusks accidently somehow.

Interviewer: When they migrate do other narwhals with unbroken tusks place the ones with broken tusks somewhere else?

Jens: The only disturbances they have during their migration are their enemies. Not humans, but killer whales. Those are also the ones that have changed the migrations of the whales… the last couple of years. Over the last couple of years they have seen a lot of killer whales surrounding the narwhals on the coast and far away from the land... according to what we have heard among the trawler crews. Such matters are unknown among the animal rights movements and among biologists.

Interviewer: Is the mating successful among the ones with broken tusks, like others without broken tusks?

Jens: I have no idea, because I haven’t seen narwhals mating. I think there’s no difference.

Interviewer: Are there any stories of narwhals with broken tusk in your home?

Jens: We see broken tusks all the time in my home, and as I said before from month to month. But I don’t think there are any specific stories of how they might have broken the tusk.

Interviewer: Have you ever heard or seen of a healed tusk?

Jens: No, of course not.

Interviewer: Are there any specific proofs of how they might have broken the tusk?

Jens: I think the reasons are the ones I’ve already mentioned. During their migration near the ice, and near the low water...

Interviewer: Where exactly does the tusk break? One-third from the top, in the middle, or at the end of the tusk?

Jens: Maybe one-third from the top of the tusk. Sometimes there is a very small broken tusk on the edge of the top... sometimes further down the tusk and sometimes farther down but I have only seen once like that. Maybe only with 50 cm... no, only the 10 cm of the tusk was visible and the rest was broken. This, which I have caught with nets, amazed me. It was thick, but about 10 centimeters of the tusk was still visible. It must have colliding it somehow, and it was maybe around 2 meters long before it broke.

Interviewer: How do broken tusks look? Beautifully broken? Or scratched? Or with sharp edges?

Jens: The broken parts of the tusk don’t match most of the times. If the narwhal was far away from the land and broke its tusk, it is usually sharp.

Interviewer: Does the broken tusk (on the sides) heal or do they have sharp endings?

Jens: The ones who have broken the tusk on the point, gets smooth tusks later, because they might have smoothed it somehow then the tusk get sharp again. I don’t think the tusk heals, but if some very small parts of the tusk were removed it can heal in time.

Interviewer: Does the lice live among the elders or among the ones with bigger tusks?

Jens: It varies, sometimes they live on smaller whales and sometimes on bigger whales. The narwhals have lice mostly during June and May. The lice also stay on the scars that are healed. There are not many lice on the sides of the tusk, not many have lice in the sides. Lice are mostly on the wounds somewhere on the body. And it is strange that the lice also can be on the tail, even though it moves all the time.

Interviewer: Is the amount of the lice the same among narwhals, females or among the ones with two tusks?

Jens: It’s not the same. I think it depends on how the narwhal is. Some have few, some very few, and sometimes there are a lot

of lice.

Interviewer: Do the elders have more lice?

Jens: I can answer the question with yes and no. Because if the narwhal has a wound, and doesn’t get caught it a long time, the lice area expands.

Interviewer: Can the lice also be found on other parts of the body?

Jens: It is only at the surface of the body that they are at. As I said, it depends on where the narwhal was wounded.

Interviewer: If the tusk is broken, are there many lice as the ones with unbroken tusk?

Jens: There are the same, no difference.

Interviewer: Does the same narwhals and females return every year?

Jens: They usually return every year. I think the narwhals give birthsmore than once each year. They have offspring when they arrive around October, and it gets early on the spring and they still have offspring. The offspring are bigger at spring and smaller at winters.

Interviewer: Does a female with tusk have more than one mate?

Jens: They give birth during their migration. For instance they have seen a whales giving birth more than one offspring, at Vajgat. It is not uncommon.

Interviewer: Does the females sometimes have many males around them?

Jens: Yes, they migrate with males, of course. And also, they sometimes have many males around them.

Interviewer: Does the narwhals fight with their partners?

Jens: I don’t think they fight… I think they are some very good creatures. I haven’t seen narwhals fighting, not even fighting for the female like the other animals.