How narwhal 'scientists' track Arctic warming

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Add as preferred source This August 2017 photo provided by The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources shows a narwhal being tagged by scientists in Hjornedal, Scoresby Sound, Greenland. The fight against climate change has a new, spiral-tusked ally: the narwhal.

In a study published in Science Advances , researchers equipped six of the toothed whales, sometimes called "unicorns of the sea," with satellite transmitters and had them explore remote East Greenland waters.

From 2017–2020, these "unconventional collaborators" retrieved more than 2,000 invaluable observations of temperature and salinity that helped show how warm Atlantic water is penetrating deep into the region's fjords and intensifying glacial melt, in turn affecting critical global weather systems.