Free Republic

A band of beluga whales took in a lost narwhal and made it one of their own, researchers said after discovering the lone whale swimming and playing with its new friends. The narwhal was discovered in the St. Lawrence River, more than 620 miles from its normal habitat, swimming with about dozen of St. Lawrence River belugas. Narwhals normally live in the Arctic near Canada, Greenland, Russia and Norway, CBC News reported. GREMM said the narwhal was believed to be a juvenile, swimming with mostly male belugas. "It behaves like it was one of the boys," Robert Michaud, the president...

A retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer accused of smuggling narwhal tusks across the border pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to 10 money-laundering counts. Gregory Logan, 59, of St. John, New Brunswick, smuggled 250 tusks valued at $1.5 million to $3 million into Maine in false compartments in his vehicle, prosecutors said. Narwhals are medium-sized whales known for spiral tusks that can grow longer than 8 feet. They are protected by the U.S. and Canada.