First Beluga Carcass of the Year Recovered in the Magdalen Islands

With the rising tide and blowing winds, this individual will soon be heading back out to sea, so we have to act quickly! This time, volunteer Catherine Blanchette is on duty. Intervention kit in hand, she quickly sets off in search of the animal, accompanied by Îles-de-la-Madeleine (IDLM) ZIP Committee members Noémie Pelletier and Jean-Philippe Lepage.

When she reaches the site, the beluga is half-submerged. At the last minute, the carcass was able to be secured, then hauled up onto the beach and firmly tied down. She snaps a few photos and measures the animal’s total length. This will help the UMM team develop an action plan: the length allows them to estimate the animal’s weight and determine the appropriate moving equipment, while the photos will help them assess the carcass’s state of decomposition. If the latter is overly advanced, samples will need to be taken in situ. If on the other hand it is in good condition and logistically feasible to move, it can be transported to a necropsy room (necropsies are the animal equivalent of autopsies).

A red tag was also attached to the beluga’s tail. It bears a unique number and UMM’s phone number. This way, should a beachgoer happen upon the animal, they will know whom to call, and the unique number will enable our team to properly identify the individual.

Night is beginning to fall. The most urgent tasks have been completed; the carcass is not going anywhere. The team can resume its work in the morning.

Today will be a day of logistics! Based on the images and information gathered by the volunteer the previous day, the UMM, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and Quebec’s wildlife health centre (CQSAS) teams determine that the carcass is fresh enough to undergo a necropsy. Everything must be done to ensure that veterinarians can examine this individual. This is no small task, as the carcass is located in L’Étang-du-Nord, while Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FMV) is in Saint-Hyacinthe, more than 850 km away as the crow flies!

Several action plans are being considered:

1 – Transfer the carcass to a Maritimes-based team of veterinarians who collaborate with the CQSAS and are members of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, which works out of the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown. Even if this site is closer, the university facilities are not equipped to accommodate an animal of this size! This option is therefore rejected.

2 – Bring in a team of CQSAS veterinarians to the carcass. This option would require a multi-person team for several days and would generate significant costs. Furthermore, if the necropsy were to be performed in the archipelago, it would have to be carried out on the beach, since, to our knowledge, there are no local facilities that can accommodate such an operation. While an on-site necropsy is a must for extremely large animals like fin whales, it does not provide an ideal working environment. Furthermore, performing a necropsy outdoors in winter, in sub-zero temperatures, is hardly feasible. The procedures require time and dexterity. It would also be necessary to properly dispose of the carcass afterward, which presents an additional logistical challenge. For all these reasons, this option is ruled out.

The team members will take this opportunity to finish documenting the animal, which they were unable to do the day before. Indeed, before moving the animal and potentially causing post-mortem lesions, it is essential to ensure that quality images are taken, especially of the dorsal ridge. Belugas do not show unique colour patterns like narwhals or fin whales, nor do they have uniquely shaped, easy-to recognize dorsal or caudal fins like humpbacks. Rather, the best way to identify a beluga is by the small notches lining its dorsal ridge. However, this ridge can be easily damaged during transport, especially by the net used to lift the animal and due to the superficial layer of skin that naturally detaches during decomposition.

Once the images have been captured, the on-site team is able to transport the beluga to the trailer. The animal is then covered with a tarp to ensure that no scavengers can tear or peck at the carcass. The trailer will have to wait until Thursday morning before it is transported to Souris. In the meantime, it will remain under the watchful eye of fisheries officers.

The on-site recovery operation was completed in record time. Just a few hours were needed to assess the situation, develop an intervention plan, and execute it. It should be noted that, for the ZIP Committee, this was the first time it ever recovered an animal of this size. Well done!

The QMMERN intervention team, also known as the mobile team, travelled from Rimouski to Souris to retrieve the beluga delivered by the ZIP Committee. The two teams had a mere 20 minutes on the dock to transfer the whale from one trailer to the other, as the ZIP Committee had to take the next ferry back to the Magdalen Islands. Quite a challenge! The trailer-to-trailer transfer was completed without incident, and the whale was subsequently transported to the FMV in Saint-Hyacinthe the following day for its necropsy.

Once it arrives at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, the carcass is lifted with a winch to be weighed and taken to the site of the necropsy. The animal tipped the scales at approximately 850 kg! However, the veterinarians realized that the carcass was too frozen to be analyzed immediately. It would have to thaw, which would take several days! Indeed, this beluga still had its thick layer of blubber, which protects it from the icy waters of the St. Lawrence. But this blubber was now having the opposite effect, meaning the internal organs were nowhere near thawed out! It wasn’t until Tuesday, January 27, that CQSAS Director Stéphane Lair determined that the beluga was ready to be necropsied.