Field notes
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2019 / 09 / 13
With the Belugas… And Their Amusing Behaviours
September 6: While part of the team is returning from Alaska to lend a hand to researchers studying the beluga population of Cook Inlet, another is taking off on board our small inflatable research cr...
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2019 / 09 / 09
With Large Rorquals… and Their Gaping Mouths
By Maude-Émilie Bourque August 28, 2019: it’s my last day as a volunteer research assistant for the GREMM this season. For three months now, I have been watching and photographing the large rorqual...
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2019 / 09 / 04
With the large rorquals… the biggest!
By Maude-Émilie Bourque Sunday, August 25, 2019. I leave for Grandes-Bergeronnes at the crack of dawn with my equipment: camera and 400 mm lens, GPS, voice recorder and floater suit. It’s 8:30 whe...
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2019 / 08 / 12
With the Belugas… Under Water
On the morning of July 26, the Bleuvet sets sail from the port of Tadoussac to study belugas. With 6 people on board, the cabin is a bit crowded. Researcher Valeria Vergara of Ocean Wise (British Col...
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2019 / 07 / 17
With the Belugas… Out Fishing!
July 3, 2019: The BpJAM is back at sea for the 2019 field season, with the same crew as last year. The foggy morning forces us to stay docked: it’s hard enough to locate a herd in the fog, much less...
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2019 / 06 / 19
With the Belugas… And Listening In!
By Mathieu Marzelière At last! GREMM’s 2019 field season is officially underway. This first week was devoted to Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s tagging project in which we are collaborating in the ...
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2019 / 05 / 29
A Blue Whale At Last!… by René Roy
I finally encountered my first large rorqual of the season! And it was about time: I had already travelled 240 nautical miles (about 445 km) in the span of three outings. On Thursday, May 23, I made y...
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2019 / 04 / 30
Travelling “Down South” … by Albert Michaud
This winter, I had the chance to leave Quebec and go “down South”. Not to the Caribbean or Florida, but much farther afield: Antarctica, one of the last truly wild regions on the planet. I had the...
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2019 / 04 / 27
With the Belugas: The Fascinating Work Behind Beluga Pairing (Part 2!)
In last week’s Field Notes, we presented the preparatory steps for beluga matching. This week, discover how the team adds pages to the life chapters of individually-known belugas. Beluga 2018011...
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2019 / 04 / 23
With the Belugas: «It’s a Match!» or The Fascinating Work Behind Beluga Pairing
One of the pillars of the research conducted at the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM) is photo-identification. For over 30 years, GREMM has been collecting valuable photos to...