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Distribution and Movements of Belugas, Delphinapterus Leucas, in the Canadian High Arctic

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Distribution and Movements of Belugas, Delphinapterus Leucas, in the Canadian High Arctic Distribution and Movements of Belugas, Delphinapterus leucas, in the Canadian High Arctic Thomas G. Smith Department sf Fisheries and Oceans, Biological Sciences Branch., Pacific Biological Station, Manaimo, BC V9R 5K6, Canada and A.R. Martin Sea Mammal Research Unit, c/o British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OET, UK Smith, P.G., and A.R. Martin. 1994. Distribution and movements of belugas, Delpkinapterws lewcas, in the Canadian High Arctic. Can. ). Fish. Aquat. Sci. 51: 1653-1663. Belugas, Delphinapterus Beucas, move into the coastal waters of Somerset Island as soon as the annual Iand- fast ice breaks asp in late June - early july. Six bays or inlets which receive the outflow of rivers are the major areas of summer aggregation. Belugas captured and equipped with satellite-lin ked UHF transmitters in Cunningham Inlet (Barrow Strait), Elwin Bay (Prince Regent Inlet), and Creswell Bay moved west into Peel Sound where they frequented two other estuaries. Rapid and directed movement out of Peel Sound occurred in late August. All of the animals which transmitted locations into September or October moved to eastern Devon lsland and Jones Sound. The longest period of transmission was 75 d, lasting until mid- October. Belugas tagged in three different locations around Somerset island in the summers of 1988-93 showed a we1 1-defined and consistent pattern of behaviour. Aerial surveys done during this period confirm that the vast majority of belugas in this region are involved in these seasonal movements. hes belugas, PBeBphinapterus leucas, entrent dans les eaux littorales de l'ile Somerset des la d6b2cle annuelle de la banqasise c6ti+re, entre la fin de juin et le debut de juillet. Six baies ou bras de mer dans lesquels se deversent les cours d'eau constituent les principales nones de regroupement estival. bes belu- gas captures et equip& d'emetteurs UHF a liaison satellitaire dans I'inlet Cunningham (detroit de Barrow), la baie Elwin (inlet Prince Regent) et la baie-Creswell, se sont deplaces vers I'ouest jusqu'au detroit de Peel, oG ils ont frequent6 deux autres estuaires. A la fin du msis d'aoirt, on a observe un mouvement rapide et dirige de sortie du detroit de Peel. Pous Bes animaux dont la localisation a et6 faite par [eur emetteur en septembre ou octobre se sont deplaces vers B'est jusqu'a I'ile Devon et fe detroit de Jones, La periode d'6mission la plus longue a kt6 de 7%jours et a dure jusqu'a la mi-octobre. bes belugas marques a trois different5 endrsits autour de I'iie Somerset au cours des ktes 1988 2 1993 ont montre un profil de com- For personal use only. portement bien defi~i.bes lev& aeriens effectues durant cette pkriode confirment que la vaste majorit6 des belugas dans cette region participe a ce mouvement saisonnier. Received luly 73, 1993 Accepted February jr 4,p 7 994 (JC006) ost belugas, Delphinapteru,~leucas, occupying the The little evidence to date points to a shared common eastern Canadian High Arctic during the ice-free stock of belugas between the eastern Canadian High Arctic months of July and August are found in the coastal and Greenland. The continuing high annual harvests in west shelf habitats around Somerset Island, N.W.T. This region, Greenland and small harvests in Canadian waters impose including Barrow Strait and parts of Lancaster Sound, is an annual estimated removal of 1200 animals per year (IWC usually covered by land-fast annual sea ice from October 1991). This population has been estimated to comprise to late June. Aerial surveys of belugas in autumn (Finley between $300 and 18 600 animals, uncorrected for those and Johnson 1977) have shown a movement out of Barrow below the water surface when the survey aircraft passed Strait and eastward through Lancaster Sound. Belugas have overhead (Smith et al. 198%).Even if the upper bound of been reported to overwinter in the large North Water polynya the estimate is inflated by a factor of 1.42 to compensate Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 08/31/13 of Baffin Bay (Finley and Wenaud 1980), but it is believed for these missed whales (Martin and Smith 1992), the total that most of the High Arctic stock spends the winter in the harvest probably far exceeds the sustainable yield for any pack ice off the west coast of Greenland between Disks odontocete whale population (Sergeant 1981; Burns and Bay and approximately 63"N (Vibe 1950; Kapel 1977). Seaman 1988; Doidge 1990). Added to the harvest are the Recent surveys in west Greenland (Heide-Jorgensen 1992) frequent ice entrapments of belugas which, combined with indicate that the area south of 65"N is no longer important opportunistic hunts at these "sassat9' (Porsild 191 8; Freeman as winter habitat for belugas, possibly because of excessively 1968; Kapel 1977; Heide-Jorgensen B994), result in signif- high catches there in drive-net fisheries between 1917 and icant added mortality. As recently as February 1990, a 1938. The main wintering concentrations are presently found "sassat" occurred in Disko Bay where an estimated 580 bel- between 67"N and 69"N, and not more than $0 km from ugas were killed by Inuit hunters. Comparisons of relative the west Greenland coast. abundance of belugas counted in Greenland waters during the Can. 9. Fish. Aquat. Sci., Vol. 51, 1994 1653 TABLEI. Details of' transmitter pack deployment on belugas at three sites on Somerset Island, N.W.T., Canada. Whales were captured atad released at the freshwater outlets of Cunningham Inlet (CI) (74"05'N, 93"49'W), Elwin Bay (EB) (73"33'N, 90"57'W), and Creswell Bay (CB) (72"43'N, 93'20'W) between 1988 and 1993. Details of animal Release Transmitter Tag longevity date Local time Place Fag No. tY Pe Length (m) Sex Age (d) 22 July 1988 13:58 Location Adult 27 July 1989 17:33 Location Adult 30 July 18:37 Location Subadult 17 July 1990 1207 Location and depth Subadult 17 July 17:22 Location Adult 17 July 17:22 Location Subadult 18 July 15136 Location and depth Adult 23 July l3:00 Location and depth Adult 21 July 1991 1224 Location and depth Adult 27 ~uay 21145 Location and depth Adult 28 July 21:25 Location and depth Subadult 31 July I6:00 Location and depth Adult 1 Aug. 12:50 Location and depth Adult 26 July 1992 1%:06 Location and depth Adult 23 July 15:0B% Location and depth Adult 23 July 14: I0 Location and depth Adult 25 July 20:40 Location and depth Adult 21 July H 3:30 Location and depth Adult 13 Aug. 1993 0245 Location and depth Adult 14 Aug. 14:OO Location and depth Adult 15 Aug. 18:15 Location and depth Adult 15 Aug. 15:30 Location and depth Subadult 14 Aug. 12150 Location and depth Adult For personal use only. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 08/31/13 FIG, I. Map of Somerset Island and adjacent open-water areas occupied by belugas, with the five (8-5) main areas of estuarine aggregation. winters of 1981 and 1982 with surveys in 1990 and I991 In light of the need for a reassessment sf the size and seem to indicate a significant decline in numbers consistent status of this stock, we review QW knowledge sf the seasonal withtheexpectedeffectof thehighccsntinamingannual dis~butisnandnaamkrssfbelugasfoundi~ntheirsumme~ng harvests (Heide-Ssrgensen et al. 1992). areas in Canadian waters and present direct evidence on 1654 Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., Vob. 51? 1994 For personal use only. FIG.2. (a) Extent of land-fast ice during a typical winter in Barrow Strait and Eancaster Sound. (b) Initial ice breakup from June to early July. Arrows indicate direction of travel of belugas in early summer. (c) Further clearing of ice in Bate July in Barrow Strait and Prince Regent Inlet. Arrows indicate direction of travel by belugas in late July - August. (d) Late August - September distribution and movement (arrows) sf belugas from Peel Sound. seasonal movements and migration routes from our studies the Creswell Bay area (Table I; Fig. I). The transmitter of belugas equipped with satellite-linked UHF transmitters. specifications, package design, and attachment procedures have been described in Martin and Smith (1992) and Martin et al. (1993). Details of service Argos, hhe satellite data reception system used, and estimates of data accuracy are The coastal areas of Somerset Island including Barrow given in Fancy et A. (1988) and CLSIService Argos (1989). Strait, Prince Regent Inlet south to Creswell Bay, and Peel Each of our transmitters was identified by a unique number Sound south to Bellot Strait were surveyed opportunistically and transmitted up to 256 data bits derived from onboard by Bell 206 helicopter or Twin Otter aircraft during July sensors. The early packages transmitted signals used to Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 08/31/13 and early August from 1980 to 1992. Flight levels of 340 determine location only whereas the most recent also relayed and 170 rn as1 were selected, the lower level when taking both detailed and summary data on dive profiles and swim- vertical photographs through a hole in the chin bubble sf ming velocity (Table 1). the Bell 206B helicopter using a Hasselblad 70-mm-format Average speeds of travel were only estimated between camera equipped with an $0-rnm lens. pairs of Argos-derived high-quality locations (location of From 1988 to 1993, 23 belugas, 16 adult and five subadult quality = 2 or 3).
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