There are no narwhals in captivity
The narwhal is one of just two species that belong to the cetacean family monodontidae, the other being beluga whales. These remarkable whales live their entire lives in the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean in Canada, Greenland, Norway, and Russia. They do not migrate.
Narwhals have never been successfully kept in captivity, unlike their beluga cousins. Captive narwhals do not flourish. There were several unsuccessful attempts to catch and maintain some of these elusive whales in aquariums and zoos over a brief period in the 1960s and 1970s, and each one culminated in the animal's tragic demise.
Only one narwhal was on display at a public aquarium in 1970, at the Coney Island location of the New York Aquarium. The narwhal, known as Umiak, only spent a short time in captivity before passing away from pneumonia.
