Pan-Arctic Tracking of Beluga Whales (PATOB)

• Main Authors: Jean-François Gosselin, Hammill, Mike, Penn, Alan, Doidge, Bill, Furgal, Chris, Turgeon, Julie, Kingsley, Michael C.S., Senneville, Simon, Lesage, Véronique
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network 2012
• Subjects: Beluga; Fatty acids; Genetic analysis; Hudson Bay; Hudson Strait; Kangiqsujuaq; Makivik Corporation; Telemetry; Umiujaq; Ungava Bay; International Polar Year-Pan-Arctic tagging of Beluga; Arctic; Nunavik; Canada; Greenland; Hudson; Kuujjuaq; Tasiujaq; Beluga*; Climate change; International Polar Year; inuit; IPY; Northwest Atlantic; Alaska; ice covered waters; James Bay
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5443/11380; https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/?doi_id=11380

PATOB research was presented to all communities in Nunavik during community consultations completed during the spring of 2007, as well as the Anguvigaq Hunters, Fishers and Trappers Association general meeting in Umiujaq, and in 2008 in Tasiujaq, the annual general meeting of the Nunavik elders sponsored by Avitaq Cultural Institute in Kangiqsujuaq, and an IPY conference to present several IPY projects held in Kuujjuaq. At the consultations, the Inuit requested that we undertake our telemetry studies in James Bay, an area where there are a large number of animals, but also where we know very little about their stock relationships with Hudson Bay beluga, their movement and diving behaviour and overwintering areas. Furthermore, James Bay is also responsible for approximately 70% of the total freshwater inflow into the Hudson Bay region, so changes in physical environmental conditions in this area will have wide reaching impacts on Hudson Bay and freshwater inflow into the Northwest Atlantic. : Purpose: Beluga hunting is an important activity for many Inuit communities in Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Hunting, initially by commercial whalers, reduced eastern Hudson and Ungava Bay beluga numbers and these stocks now have a COSEWIC status of 'endangered.' Management activities over the last decade have lead to declines in harvest levels. Nonetheless, continued access to beluga remains important to the Inuit subsistence culture. Beluga are commonly associated with freshwater estuaries during summer, where they are vulnerable to hunting and over-winter in ice-covered waters. Some populations are highly migratory, while others show little seasonal change in distribution. Changes in freshwater inputs, oceanographic conditions, and winter ice cover, as well as developments in commercial fisheries may impact on migration corridors, foraging, and seasonal distribution patterns of beluga, and may increase competition as more temperate species (whales and seals) move into northern areas. Such changes will alter access by hunters to whales, upsetting traditional harvest patterns, while the influx of new species will require changes in cultural values, development of new harvesting technologies and will increase international scrutiny. : Summary: Beluga are important to the traditional subsistence culture of the Inuit and can be found in the freshwater estuaries and ice-covered waters of the Eastern Arctic. However, climate change may be affecting the behaviour of these mammals. Using traditional knowledge and satellite telemetry, this project is examining the movement and distribution of beluga whales in Hudson Bay, James Bay and Ungava Bay through the development of community monitoring program.