The Narwhal, Monodon monoceros, in Eastern Canadian Waters

In the Pond Inlet area of Baffin Island in 1963–65, 62 narwhals (Monodon monoceros) were caught in nets and examined. Growth layers occur in both the extruded tusk and in the embedded tooth. The few identifiable food remains in stomachs were of squid and Arctic cod. At birth, the calf measures about 160 cm in length and weighs just over 80 kg. Fully grown females attain a length of 400 cm and a weight of 900 kg. Males reach 470 cm and a weight of 1600 kg. Calving is assumed to occur about once in 3 yr. A conservative estimate for the narwhal population of Canada and northwestern Greenland is approximately 10,000. Although the birth rate is unknown, it is assumed to be similar to that calculated for the closely related white whale; that is, about 9%. The maximum potential annual catch, based on the highest reported Canadian catch of 442 narwhals in 1957, combined with the Greenland catch of 135 and an assumed sinking loss of 50%, is about 1154. This is above the estimated annual production of 900.

Cystic fibrosis heterozygote detection: a family study

Family studies have been done to determine if the phenotypes described for the cystic fibrosis (CF) cultured cell reliably detected the CF gene. Two culture phenotypes were studied in culture derived from consecutive generations in four CF families: (1) cystic fibrosis factor (CFF) in the medium of short-term white blood cell cultures assayed by a modified oyster ciliary test and (2) the three characteristics of cultured skin fibroblasts (metachromasia without alcianophilia at 0.3 M MgCl2, CFF in the culture medium and metabolic cooperation with normal fibroblasts). As CF is an autosomal recessive disorder, the family offered a test unit for determining the specificity of these cell phenotypes for the CF gene. On the basis of detecting the CF culture phenotypes in the homozygote and obligatory heterozygotes, the parents, and their segregation in consecutive generations, detection of the CF gene was not possible in the white blood cell cultures, but was possible in the skin fibroblast cultures.

Inshore Records of Cetacea for Eastern Canada, 1949–68

New and previously published records are given for 19 species of Cetacea stranded naturally, netted, or shot on the coasts of eastern Canada from Cape Chidley, Labrador (60°30′N), to the United States border (45°N), from 1949 to 1968. The most commonly recorded species were Globicephala melaena, Phocoena phocoena, Balaenoptera physalus, and Delphinapterus leucas. Occurrence of Stenella coeruleoalba at Sable Island was confirmed. Four blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) stranded naturally, three of them in the western Gulf of St. Lawrence. Groups of fin whales (B. physalus) were twice stranded by ice in western Newfoundland. The greatest number of species stranded at Sable Island (44°N, 60°W).

Observations on the Greenland Shark, Somniosus microcephalus, in Northern Baffin Island

Eighteen immature Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus (Bloch and Schneider) 1801) were captured during the course of a study on the biology of the narwhal, Monodon monoceros. Most had been feeding on offal resulting from the whaling operation and on fish and seal meat discarded at the campsite. Other food consumed included two egg cases of the arctic skate, Raja hyperborea, previously unrecorded from this locality. Four narwhals and one white whale were attacked in the nets, the sharks removing large chunks of skin and blubber from the carcasses.