All aboard the beluga express!

Beluga whales are amazing animals, and they’re also amazingly unique. Unlike most other whales, the adults are all white and they have no fin on their back, but a crest that allows them to break the ice to breathe. Compared to their predator, the killer whale, they’re tiny! Belugas are usually about 5 metres (15 feet) long, while killer whales can grow to almost twice that length.

Their unique features make belugas well adapted to their Arctic homes, where they spend much of their time swimming underneath sheets of ice. Want to catch a glimpse of these marvellous mammals but not ready to hop on a plane Canada’s coolest climate? That’s where Parks Canada comes in!

Just a couple hours northeast of Quebec City is the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park, Canada’s first National Marine Conservation Area. The park was created in 1998 to help protect the St. Lawrence population of beluga whales that call this important area home. This population is the southernmost in the world. Here, belugas do everything they need to do to survive: they feed, they give birth and take care of their young. There were an estimated 10,000 whales living in the St. Lawrence in the late 1800s, but sadly years of hunting and changes in their habitat have reduced the population to less than 900 and the St. Lawrence Beluga is now endangered.

Scientists started monitoring the St. Lawrence beluga population in the 1980s, and they’ve already done lots to help increase knowledge of this unique population. Not only is it now illegal to hunt beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River, it’s also illegal to chase or disturb them, thanks to laws established in the Marine Park by Parks Canada and collaborators. This means that boats and kayaks must drive slowly and stay at least 400 metres away from any belugas they spot. This creates a sort of “bubble” of protection around the whales that are easily distracted by all the traffic, giving beluga mothers the peace and quiet they need to give birth and take care of their babies.

Belugas only have babies every 2-3 years, which means their population doesn’t grow very fast – and this can make recovery really slow. Even though one important cause of population decline was eliminated (hunting), the Parks Canada team knew that they would have to do more if they wanted the population to recover. They needed to make sure that aside from just being safe, these belugas had enough food and habitat to succeed.

And that’s where L’Alliance comes in! L’Alliance is a Parks Canada boat that heads out twice every week to collect important information from the park. It uses a special tool called an echosounder to track the amount and location of the food that the beluga loves to eat, like small fish such as capelin and sandlance. This helps the team identify important beluga feeding grounds, which it can then work extra hard to protect. Keeping the beluga’s habitat safe helps make sure they have peaceful areas to take care of their young and that they have a steady source of food to support the population.

Beluga whales are incredible creatures, and thanks to Parks Canada their St. Lawrence River population is well protected – and we wish them good luck on the road to recovery!