The unicorns of the sea

The chance of seeing narwhals in the wild is low. But for the lucky people who catch a glimpse of these elusive animals, this rarity makes the encounter even more special.

“If we're going to see narwhals, this is really the last chance,” Saunders Carmichael-Brown recalls being told while on an expedition in the Northwest Passage with AE Expeditions. “But we haven't seen any yet, so don't get your hopes up.”

The ship was cruising slowly through the Buchan Gulf – a fjord system on the far east of the Canadian Arctic – on the way to visit an impressive glacier. Hugging the coastline, they had reached a channel of fjords which are protected from expedition vessels. From this point, they couldn’t travel any further. 

This marine protected area is “a real hotspot for narwhal,” he says. But even in these waters, where you’re more likely to see narwhals than many other regions, the chances of a sighting were slim.