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Beluga stories: this is the sixth episode of the transcript of the training lecture given by Robert Michaud at the CIMM on June 22, 2015. In this text and audio episode: beluga fishing of yesteryear with weirs and the film Of Whales, the Moon and Men; the birth of a beluga in captivity and its mother’s behaviour; lending nature a hand by attempting to reintroduce a baby beluga found on shore into a group.

On June 22, Robert Michaud, scientific director and co-founder of the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM), gave a training lecture at the Marine Mammal Interpretation Centre (CIMM) in Tadoussac. The biologist and St. Lawrence beluga specialist shared stories about these whales and raised questions about the current decline in the St. Lawrence population.

Whales Online brings you excerpts of this presentation, in the form of a sort of written and audio series to be followed all summer and fall. In the final episode (8/8) of News from Near and Afar, Robert Michaud will answer additional questions. What about you, do you have any questions regarding belugas? We urge you to ask them in the “Questions from the Public” section of the website or on the Whales Online Facebook page.

Robert Michaud speaks about the film Of Whales, the Moon and Men, produced by Pierre Perreault and Michel Brault in 1962. At the time, belugas were referred to as “porpoises”. For this film, residents of Île aux Coudres revive traditional “porpoise” fishing using weirs, a practice that disappeared in the 1920s. For what purpose?

Listen (in French) (9 min 04 s)

Photos: © GREMM

In June 2008, a beluga at the Vancouver Aquarium gave birth. The behaviour of this young mother raises many questions. And now, two months later, a baby beluga whale is stranded alive on the north shore of the St. Lawrence Estuary. It was decided to place it back into the water in the hope that it would be adopted by a group of belugas. The monitoring of this attempt yields exceptional observations. But once again, this type of incident raises ethical questions, especially when it is an endangered species: should we let nature follow its course or should we intervene?

Listen (in French) (7 min 44 s)

Photo: © Vancouver Aquarium

Photo: © GREMM

To learn more

On the National Film Board website:

Of Whales, the Moon and Men (downloadable film)

On YouTube:

Qila gives birth in 2010 in the Vancouver Aquarium

On Whales Online:

Whaling in the St. Lawrence

Reproduction

About the beluga (data sheet)

Robert Michaud bio

Previous episodes of the training lecture:

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Mission accomplished!

It’s the third and last week of the intensive biopsy program for St. Lawrence belugas. Our goal is to obtain 50 biopsies in each of the three years of the project. We begin the week with 28 biopsies in hand! It’s a tall order!

September 25, 2015: As of the morning of the last day in the field, we have already managed 51 biopsies! The week has been very productive. Just as we’ve done every morning for the past three weeks, we get up early and head out to sea to locate belugas. The more samples we obtain, the higher the likelihood that our results will be representative of the population. Today, we head upstream, into the Upper Estuary. A first contact is made near Île aux Fraises, a second one at Île aux Lièvres and to finish the grand tour, a final one off of Île Blanche off the Charlevoix coasts. Fantastic conditions – but especially the fact that the entire team that has been becoming increasingly adept at sampling – allow us to take an additional seven biopsies. It’s our best season since the program was launched in 2013. A great deal of laboratory work now awaits us. To be continued!

Click on the map to navigate with the Bleuvet and discover the highlights of the week! Although this map is only available in French, the image it illustrates goes beyond language.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE WEEK

Céline – adopted in 1997 by Leslie B. Durst;
Trèfle – adopted in 1988 by the Matthew Ralph Kane Foundation;
Nics – adopted in 2014 the riverside municipalities of the St. Lawrence;
Miss Frontenac – adopted in 2008 by Fairmont Le Château Frontenac;
Conferon Connie – adopted in 2000 by Conferon Incorporated;
Pascolio – adopted in 1990 by Tadoussac business owners;
DL0030 – available for collective adoption;
DL0584 – adoption underway by naturalists of the GREMM;
DL1050 – available for adoption;
DL0218 – available for adoption;
DL0212 – available for adoption.

The complete list of identified belugas requires meticulous efforts to match individuals, which will be undertaken after the field season.

Property of the GREMM and the St. Lawrence National Institute of Ecotoxicology, the Bleuvet is a research boat dedicated to the research program on St. Lawrence belugas. Managed by GREMM scientific director Robert Michaud, the Bleuvet crew is composed of Michel Moisan, Tim Perrero and Simon Moisan.

Biopsies Made Challenging by the Wind

In this second week of the intensive beluga biopsy program, we have spent 16 hours with these animals. Autumn can be felt in the air: daylight hours are shorter and it is biting cold on the water! Strong southwest winds prevent us from working in the Estuary much of the week and force us to take refuge in the Saguenay Fjord, but on the morning of September 18, conditions are better. Here is a summary of this day.
It is early morning. We decide to try our luck in the Estuary and venture beyond Batture aux Alouettes in Baie-Sainte-Catherine. The conditions are not encouraging, but we try. In addition to the waves, fog limits our visibility, but we look for belugas, we seek … and we find. They are 100 m away from us and we can barely make them out. There are about thirty animals in two tight, dynamic groups.
At 9:22, 20 minutes after the start of the contact, we fire a first shot… missed! The wind has already picked up and changes the trajectory of the bolt. We reload and approach another group. At 9:34, we fire a second time! This time, the biopsy is successful. Everyone on board gets back into their positions. There’s no time to lose: the animals are in tight, directional groups, which is ideal for this kind of work and should be taken advantage of. Another group emerges next to us, everyone is ready, the belugas are a good distance away, another shot! It is 9:36 and here we are now with two successful biopsies in the span of two minutes. Our luck ends there, however: the wind grows stronger and makes us miss the following two shots. We stop the contact with two biopsies under our belt, which isn’t too bad and then, once again, we return to the Saguenay Fjord!

Click on the map to navigate with the Bleuvet and discover the highlights of the week! Although this map is only available in French, the image it illustrates goes beyond language.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE WEEK

Yogi – adopted in 1988 by Bell Canada;
Pure Laine – adopted in 2014 by Cynthia Fish;
DL0030 – available for collective adoption;
Annakpok – adopted in 2014 by Canada Steamship Lines;
Céline – adopted in 1997 by Leslie B. Durst;
Neige – adopted in 2014 by St. Lawrence riverside municipalities;
DL0269 – available for adoption;
DL0248 – available for adoption;

and DL9001 (Néo).

The complete list of identified belugas requires meticulous efforts to match individuals, which will be undertaken after the field season.

Property of the GREMM and the St. Lawrence National Institute of Ecotoxicology, the Bleuvet is a research boat dedicated to the research program on St. Lawrence belugas. Managed by GREMM scientific director Robert Michaud, the Bleuvet crew is composed of Michel Moisan, Tim Perrero and Simon Moisan.

MOM, CAN YOU HEAR ME?

This week, the team had 11 encounters in 22 hours with belugas. Two boats were on the water to continue the photo-identification. On board one of them were Robert Michaud and Valeria Vergara, who were undertaking a passive acoustic protocol on the sounds of newborn belugas. GREMM founder Robert Michaud speaks about this new project.

This week: “We are working again with a longtime collaborator and we are relaunching a project that is particularly dear to us. During my stay as resident researcher at the Vancouver Aquarium in 2007-2008, I discovered the work of Valeria Vergara who was studying communication development in beluga newborns. Valeria notably used the recordings we had made in the St. Lawrence to demonstrate the alert function of the first cries learned by young belugas. This week, we are working together in the Saguenay Fjord to assess the possibility of studying the impact of noise on communication between mothers and their calves. In the first few weeks of life, the calves’ “contact” cries are emitted at relatively low frequencies that are easily masked by the sound of boats. This is a challenging project, but an important one. We managed several very good recordings this week… The pilot project is conclusive. Funding remains to be secured to ensure the kick-off of the project next summer. At the present time, we believe that we will need two or three seasons to conduct this new study.”

Click on the map to navigate with the Bleuvet and discover the highlights of the week!

IDENTIFICATION OF THE WEEK

Yogi – adopted in 1988 by Bell Canada;
Pacalou– adopted in 2006 by Pascale Cauchi;
Pure Laine – adopted in 2014 by Cynthia Fish;
Miss Frontenac – adopted in 2008 by Fairmont Le Château Frontenac;
Blanche – adopted in 2014 by the municipality of Tadoussac;

and DL1508, DL9018…

The complete list of identified belugas requires meticulous efforts to match individuals, which will be undertaken after the field season.

Property of the GREMM and the St. Lawrence National Institute of Ecotoxicology, the Bleuvet is a research boat dedicated to the research program on St. Lawrence belugas. Managed by GREMM scientific director Robert Michaud, the Bleuvet crew is composed of Michel Moisan, Tim Perrero and Simon Moisan.

This project is being led by researcher Véronique Lesage (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) in collaboration with the GREMM, Saint Mary’s University in Nova Scotia and Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. The objective is to determine whether the proportion of female belugas that are pregnant is comparable to the figure which might be expected in a healthy population, i.e. about one third of adult females.

The project is in its third year and runs from approximately September 8 to 25. This period is scheduled quite far from the peak for births (July) in order to produce a representative picture and hope for favourable weather conditions for the offshore team combing beluga habitat aboard the Bleuvet. Progesterone is a hormone produced by the ovaries and the level of which varies depending on whether or not the female is pregnant. These variations are detectable in tiny fat samples that can be taken during biopsies. The collected biopsies can also be used for other projects on the beluga nutrition, physiological condition, contamination or genetics. After a one week of work, 22 biopsies have already been successfully completed. The team is satisfied with the course of events and is hopeful that it will continue until the end!

To learn more:

On progesterone dosing

On the St. Lawrence beluga population

For its 15^th anniversary, the reference site on whales of the St. Lawrence has been completely revamped. With a broader network of collaborators and new columnists, Whales Online provides comprehensive coverage of news about whales here and elsewhere, week after week. Through News from Afield and Field Notes, from the Côte-Nord to the Gaspé and upstream to the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park, some forty experienced observers and research teams relay their observations and share their most noteworthy moments. With a brand new look and thanks to the support of the Government of Canada’s National Conservation Plan and the Donner Canadian Foundation, the English version of Whales Online is back.

A tool for the discovery and conservation of whales and the St. Lawrence

WhalesOnline.org is an initiative of the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM). As a dynamic and constantly evolving platform, the site revolves around a copiously illustrated encyclopedia-like section that discusses cetaceans and the St. Lawrence, whale-watching in Quebec, research and conservation. For Gréta Fougère, General Director of the Association touristique de Manicouagan, “the Whales Online site is a tremendous tool to discover the world of whales before actually coming to see them on the Whale Route between Tadoussac to Blanc-Sablon”.

The Whales Online website, with its bulletin Portrait de Baleines, also plays a role in the continuous education of captains and naturalists belonging to the Eco-Whale Alliance. Partners of this Alliance, namely whale-watching cruise operators in the Marine Park as well as Parks Canada and Parcs Québec – co-managers of the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park – receive news on research programs from a vast network of collaborators and the Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Response Network. Jérôme Gouron co-director of the Marine Park: “It’s a wonderful tool both for visitors who are interested in learning more about whales, and for captains and naturalists who can stay up to date on sightings in the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park.”

Over 3,500 subscribers already receive the free Whales Online newsletter every week. And that number keeps growing, as does the number of subscribers on the social networks affiliated with Whales Online. GREMM Scientific Director Robert Michaud shares his excitement: “Having Whales Online in English again is fantastic. In fact, we are now capable of reaching everyone throughout Quebec and the rest of Canada. Over the years, we have become increasingly convinced that by sharing the whales’ stories, we can change the world, little by little.”

The different “faces” of Whales Online over the years:

We are in the 4^th week of field work for the St. Lawrence beluga behavioural study. We have gone out on the water on two days during which we logged 9 hours of observations for 15 hours at sea.

We first explored the Saguenay Fjord sector, from Caribou-Qui-Pisse Falls to Baie Sainte-Marguerite. We also patrolled the waters of the municipality of Petit-Saguenay, more specifically around Pointe aux Crêpes. We later explored the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord off of Baie-Sainte-Catherine and as far as east-central Île Blanche. The weather during the last two excursions was problematic: poor visibility, periods of fog and rain, strong waves and heavy cloud cover. In total we observed 3 herds numbering about 15 adults and gray young as well as a herd of 80 individuals composed of females, grays and one calf. The animals were rather dynamic: surface activities, milling (repeated diving and resurfacing at the same spot), vocalizations and multidirectional movement.

Tuesday July 21, 2015 The numerous waves form whitecaps, complicating our task of spotting belugas under the circumstances. Nevertheless, we manage to get a number of photos of belugas showing distinctive markings. Within the herd we recognize Céline, who is swimming with her calf which is at least one year old. The latter has a deformity that makes it appear hunchbacked, a little like Pascolio, a well known female in the Saguenay sector that suffers from lordosis, i.e. a concave curvature of the vertebral column. A number of belugas showing deformities also found in humans (lordosis, scoliosis) frequent the waters of the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay. Pascolio, Scolio, Néo and others are more easily recognizable by this characteristic, but photos are often necessary to confirm an identification made in the field.. Then, toward the end of our observation, we encounter two “grays” that we had not yet seen this season that are moving in the opposite direction of our herd. They quickly swim away, leaving the herd behind.

Thursday, July 23, 2015: We observe a large herd of some 80 individuals, highly dynamic and active at the surface. As they are vocalizing quite a bit, we decide to drop our hydrophone into the water to record the underwater sounds. The herd splits into groups of about a dozen individuals and it is increasingly difficult to keep count. We snap off a few photos when we spot an individual with a very distinctive dorsal crest. It makes for a good candidate for a biopsy, which we complete successfully.

Here is the star observed this week: Céline

The Bleuvet is a boat belonging to the GREMM. It is dedicated to the long-term research program on St. Lawrence belugas.

The field season for the St. Lawrence beluga behavioural study is under way. The first week consisted of three days for a total of 15 hours at sea and six hours observing belugas. Accompanied by inclement weather which lasted the entire three days (fog, wind, waves, rain), we travelled up the Saguenay Fjord from its mouth to Baie Sainte-Marguerite. When offshore conditions are compromised by heavy fog and strong winds, the weather is generally calmer in the Saguenay, which allows us to sample this sector, which is every bit as important for belugas. We therefore take advantage of this tendency to explore the Fjord. We also visited the waters south of Île Rouge, in the middle of the Estuary off Tadoussac. During the week, we observed a high percentage of “grays”, i.e. juveniles that are not yet completely white. At birth, beluga calves are light brown. In their second year they turn blue-gray (known as a “bleuvet” in French) and will fade in colour with age. The transition from gray to white occurs between 12 and 16 years. We also saw several females with young, with herd sizes ranging from 2-20 individuals. The majority of individuals were dynamic and directional in their movements; in other words, they were en route to a fixed point, without stopping along the way.

July 1, 11:00 am: We encounter an old acquaintance dating back to 1998. It is a female, Pacalou, and her “bleuvet”. In the same group, we also observe Miss Frontenac, her oldest daughter who is now about 11 years old, and who is also accompanied by her second-year young. Mother and daughter are both simultaneously “moms”. They swam up the Saguenay Fjord, from Anse à la Boule to Îles Coquarts.

July, 3:00 pm: We explore Baie Sainte-Marguerite, a restricted area where the belugas spend several hours, including a great deal of time surveying the surface and swimming in circles. We observe a group of about twenty individuals. They are highly active and are moving about quickly, making it difficult to count the number of adults and young. We take a few quick snapshots. Among them, we spot a familiar individual: Blanche, a female first identified in 2001, who is over 25 years old and who has recently been adopted by the municipality of Tadoussac.

July 3: We observe a group of about a dozen individuals south of Île Rouge that are zipping back and forth in every direction. When this type of behaviour is observed, it is almost always in this sector. Perhaps they are taking advantage of the shallow waters to feed, but on what kind of prey is anyone’s guess.

In short, some of the stars observed this week include Pacalou, Miss Frontenac, Blanche and DL1050.

The Bleuvet is a boat belonging to the GREMM. It is dedicated to the long-term research program on St. Lawrence belugas

We are looking for volunteer interns for the 2015 season to participate in the photo-identification program of the great whales of the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park.

Where

• Tadoussac

Task Summary

• Photo-identification of whales onboard whale-watching vessels
• Database management (audio/Excel)
• Photo analysis work (matching)

Requirements and qualifications

• Rigor and meticulousness, analytical mindset and professionalism
• Motivation and positive attitude
• Experience in the field of photography, an asset

Modalities

• Mid-June to mid-September
• 40 h week
• Housing is provided (located a short distance from the workplace)

If interested

Please send your application by email to: [email protected]
Groupe de recherche et d’éducation sur les mammifères marins (GREMM)
108, rue de la Cale-Sèche, C. P. 223, Tadoussac (QC) G0T 2A0, Tél. 418-235-4701 Fax : 418-235-4325