The hunting of narwhals (Monodon monoceros) has been an important element in the cultural and economic life of indigenous people in the eastern Canadian Arctic and Greenland for centuries. This dissertation explores factors that have motivated the hunters and ways that non-indigenous forces have intervened to restrict hunting activities. Particular attention is paid to commercial (trade) aspects of the hunt and to how these have developed and changed through time. Concern about narwhal conservation first arose during the late 1960s and early 1970s. This concern has focused on a presumed positive correlation between the monetary value of tusk ivory for export and the intensity of hunting by the Inuit. An idealized model of conflict development and resolution is used to facilitate comparisons among six cases, including bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) hunting in Alaska, beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) hunting in southeastern Baffin Island and northern Quebec, dugong (Dugong dugon) hunting in Australia and Papua New Guinea, and narwhal hunting in Canada. These comparisons suggest that the conflict surrounding narwhal-hunt management is in a middle to late phase of development. Also, its commercial dimensions and geographically dispersed markets for products (ivory and maktaq) distinguish the narwhal hunt from the other marine-mammal hunts considered here. The continuing demand for narwhal products necessitates a hunt-management regime that is rooted in scientific knowledge, has legitimacy in Inuit communities, and keeps the kill rate within sustainable bounds.

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