New federal survey aims to count hundreds of beluga whales in James Bay

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) will be logging some serious airtime over the next few weeks, counting belugas over the James Bay area.

The survey is being commissioned by some communities on the east side of James Bay and Hudson Bay for the next harvesting season. In order to create harvesting plans, the communities need to know how many beluga whales are in the waters. The Cree do not hunt beluga but  are involved as co-management partners in the Nunavik beluga management plan.

The survey is continuing until mid-September and the results will be used to estimate the abundance of belugas in their summer range.

Caroline Sauvé, a biologist with the federal department, told CBC Radio's Morning North that they usually fly the surveys at 1,000 feet altitude. She said they always use the same protocol so the results are comparable.

"These surveys have been done since the mid 1980s," she said. "This is the ninth survey of a time series."

How to count beluga whales

Counting belugas by hand is no easy feat. 

Sauvé said the number of the whales in the water can vary greatly in the summer. Some days, she and her team can fly around for hours without seeing anything. Other days, hundreds of beluga whales will appear at a time.

"We just have to be alert and be ready to spot them when they come." she said.

Adult beluga whales can grow to be 4½ metres in length, but from roughly 300 metres above the water, they're only about 2½ centimetres long.

"They're small and they're all white. We pass at 180 kilometres per hour, so we have to be quick to spot them," she explained.

Sauvé said if they helicopter passes too quickly, they'll circle back and take pictures so her team can count them afterwards. 

Why track beluga whales?

While the tracking of belugas might seem a little odd, Sauvé said, the DFO  mandates the assessment of marine mammal stocks across Canada.

She said it's important to understand how to provide scientific advice on management of not only beluga species, but also right whales, among others.

When it comes to sharing this information with communities that harvest belugas, Sauvé said, her team is training locals from Inuit communities in Hudson Bay as observers in this survey. 

The information will also be shared with Mushkegowuk Council.

"They are very interested in seeing the location of those animals, the places where they aggregate, the number that we count so they can inform their decision and their design and also track what's in these waters. I think there is more and more interest in every community."