With the Belugas: Week of August 1st, 2016

Calves, calves, and more calves.

The beluga calving season is in full swing. Despite the newborn mortalities recorded in recent weeks, our observations out at sea have been encouraging. As part of the research project on communication between mothers and calves, we spent the week again in the Saguenay River and its mouth. We had a number of very nice encounters this week. In particular, a few hours spent in Baie Sainte-Marguerite with a herd of females with young and… five calves.

Again this week, Amanita and Athena were seen almost daily. But the surprise of the week was DL0169. DL0169 was first photographed in 1977 by Leone Pippard. At the time, she was already an all-white adult. If, as our records suggest, females become white around the age of 14 on average, DL0169 would be at least 50 years old.

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

IDENTIFICATIONS OF THE WEEK

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.