Baby Seals and Solitary Belugas

From Île aux Lièvres, photographer Éric Deschamps regularly sees dozens of belugas pass by in a back-and-forth ballet. Farther south, an observer in Isle-aux-Coudres states: “It’s always the same pattern: we see them swim upstream with the rising tide, then return in the opposite direction when the tide goes out. Some days there are groups all across the St. Lawrence and the entire length of the island. It’s a real pleasure to observe them and hear them breath.”

Between these two islands, in Saint-Irénée, a local woman marvels at these regular comings and goings. “At the moment, they always swim past between 6 and 8 in the evening, right at happy hour! It looks as if they’re coming to greet us.” On Sunday, May 23, it’s a small group of fewer than ten individuals. Same thing on Tuesday, May 25. “They bob up and down on the surface like beautiful white balloons,” she describes.

On the evening of May 23, off Cap de Bon-Désir, a couple observes a white back that appears to be all by its lonesome. “Aren’t belugas social?” they wonder. In fact, even if belugas are animals with very rich social lives like us, it is not uncommon to see individuals swimming alone. In the “fission-fusion” system that characterizes their herd dynamics, belugas regularly switch from one group to another and, when between two groups, can sometimes appear alone. “There are also individuals that, for one reason or another, are clearly alone more often,” points out GREMM’s scientific director Robert Michaud. For example, this is the case of Yogi, a female that is rarely seen swimming with other females, even when she is accompanied by a calf. Or the case of Néo, a beluga that suffers from quite severe lordosis.

Moreover, on May 24, our observer from Isle-aux-Coudres reports having seen a beluga with a pronounced deformity in the rear part of its back. “It should be easy to recognize,” she suggests. However, besides Néo, there are a number of other oddly-shaped belugas: Scolio, Pascolio, Dimitri, etc. These deformities can be the result of a trauma, nutrient deficiencies, or they can be congenital, meaning the beluga was born with a deformed spine.

Dark backs few and far between

Minke whales continue to be present, probably thanks to the abundance of capelin near the coast. Jacques Gélineau reports “probably about ten minke whales” in the area of Sept-Îles, “but not a single large whale.” On May 23, a GREMM employee spots a minke whale near Anse à la Barque. The next day and a little farther up the Saguenay, a local woman is surprised to see a small black back.