Isla Camille Duporge

In August 2024, I was part of a survey team surveying narwhal (Monodon monoceros) in Naujaat, Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic, in collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The survey was carried out using two Twin Otter aircraft flying at 2,000 feet, with the goal of comparing results to a concurrent satellite survey I organized with WorldView-3 (Maxar Technologies). Although cloud cover limited the satellite observations, on the days when we weren't aerial surveying, I was able to collect narwhal eDNA samples from a boat to assess the potential of eDNA as a detection tool for narwhal. A publication documenting our findings is forthcoming.