Narwhals are uniquely vulnerable to climate change and human disturbance. Their welfare in an increasingly accessible Arctic faces novel challenges.
Narwhal welfare is profoundly shaped by the extreme sensitivity of this species to disturbance. Where other cetaceans may habituate to vessel traffic, narwhals show strong avoidance responses to ships at great distances — responses that interrupt feeding and cause energetic costs from prolonged stress. As Arctic shipping routes open with sea ice decline, narwhals increasingly encounter vessels in habitat that was previously ice-covered and human-free. Sassat events — where narwhals become trapped under forming ice and suffocate — are natural welfare emergencies that have always occurred but may become more unpredictable with changing ice dynamics. The welfare cost of climate-driven Arctic change falls disproportionately on species like narwhals that evolved specific dependencies on stable sea ice conditions.