The St. Lawrence beluga population has jumped from one to two, but don’t show off the confetti! The good news has more to do with more accurate inventory practices than a real baby boom.
The Beluga Symposium 2023, which was held from May 3 to 5, brought together more than 120 researchers, professors, specialists and students and provided an opportunity to assess the situation of this emblematic animal of the St. Lawrence. If the figures seem encouraging at first glance, the animal’s situation remains critical.
Robert Michaud, president and scientific director of the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM), devotes a good part of his professional life to the little white whale. He obviously participated in the Symposium.
“This is a first scientific symposium to take stock of the progress of scientific knowledge. It was an extremely stimulating exercise to compare all the data on animal health, ecology, maritime traffic, acoustics…”
In terms of good news, Mr. Michaud is delighted that cancer is “no longer a conservation problem for the species”, as Professor of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Montreal Stéphane Lair has demonstrated. “Cancers have disappeared from the radar, but the beluga is not off the hook. The black series of calf and female mortalities is worrying. Calves die at birth and females while giving birth. This heavy trend significantly mortgages the future of the population, we think that we are already beginning to see the first signs of very worrying consequences”, adds the scientific director of the GREMM.
Thirty presentations were on the program.
“What impressed me the most was to see how much we started to make connections between long data series. Many of the presentations relied on the carcass recovery program, which is 40 years old, for example. To get to know the animal better, long-term data is extraordinary, because it makes it possible to analyze an impressive amount of information over time.”
From single to double
Researcher Véronique Lesage definitely held the highlight of the symposium. “There are more belugas swimming in the St. Lawrence than previously thought,” she announced during her presentation. Between 1530 and 2180 belugas would swim in the waters of the river rather than the approximately 800 to 900 previously estimated. But the researcher and her colleagues are not claiming victory.
Everything leads us to believe that the population has remained more or less stable for about thirty years. “It’s worrying, because it should have almost doubled in this period,” said Robert Michaud. “Stressors” are involved. “We are talking about access to quality and abundant food, disturbance and noise, and contaminants. These are the three sources that hold the population in check, but it keeps going.
That the estimates jumped the herd from single to double is “mixed good news”. “It’s still reassuring. The St. Lawrence belugas are isolated from other populations in the north, so we only rely on them. By being more numerous than we thought, the relative impact of the various disasters that we can experience, such as the toxic algae bloom of 2008 which caused at least 10 mortalities and probably many more, is attenuated. Of course, episodic events like this have more impact on very small populations than on large ones. »
Artificial intelligence to the rescue
Research on the beluga, as on many marine mammals, is experiencing significant advances thanks to artificial intelligence, which gives much hope to Robert Michaud and his colleagues in the research community. “The quality of data that can be obtained through the use of AI, which speeds up and clarifies the processing of aerial photos, for example, is extremely stimulating,” he says, referring to diet monitoring. , pregnancies, births, changes in behavior and the distribution of animals among others. “We are starting to have more and more precise tools to better and better answer more precise questions. »
A study also demonstrates in a “fairly elegant” way the impact of maritime traffic in the Saguenay, according to Robert Michaud. “During important periods when large ships pass through the Saguenay, the belugas definitely come to spend less time in the sector. »
A bigger park? So much the better
The expansion of the Saguenay-Saint-Laurent Marine Park, announced with great fanfare in March in Tadoussac, is eagerly awaited by specialists.
“Yes, we have expectations regarding this expansion, which is very good news. In particular, it could give us tools to better protect females with young, which cause us great concern. It is not known why they die in large numbers, but one of the factors that can contribute to mortality is the disturbance of the females. The expansion opens up the possibility of opening up quiet areas,” summarizes Mr. Michaud. Such an area is already delimited in Baie-Sainte-Marguerite, on the Saguenay, but there is none on the south shore. “The extension of the park could allow the creation of new areas”, hopes Robert Michaud.
The return of the symposium is desired by those who participated.
“The beluga research community is an effervescent environment that works in collegiality. Bridges were made, others were solidified. The small symposium made this possible. It’s a first, but it’s not a last,” he concludes.
2023-05-09 17:00:55
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