Cumberland Sound Beluga

The Cumberland Sound Belugas are a population of beluga whale. The population reside in the Cumberland Sound between the Hall Peninsula and the Cumberland Peninsula in Nunavut, Canada. Data recovered from tagged whales suggest that they reside in the sound all-year-round.

Description

In Cumberland Sound, adult females and males reach mean lengths of 362 cm (11.9 ft) and 428 cm (14.0 ft) respectively and weigh from 800 to 1000 kg (1750 - 2200 Ibs). The peak breeding season appears to occur in May with calves being born in late July or early August after a gestation period of about 14.5 months. The oldest female and male sampled from the catch in Cumberland Sound to date are 26 and 24 years respectively. In many stocks, belugas can live to be 35 – 40 years of age.

Location

Belugas occupy mostly the western side of the Cumberland Sound in spring and early autumn. In summer, they are found mainly in Clearwater Fiord and adjacent bays where they are reported to feed on a variety of fish and invertebrate species. Based on recent results obtained from satellite-tagging studies, belugas spend most of their time in the centre of the Sound in late autumn, then move to the eastern side near the mouth of the Sound in early winter.

Diet

During the late autumn and early winter belugas dive to depths of 300 m or more in the middle of Cumberland Sound, likely to feed on deep-water species such as Greenland halibut, also known as turbot. Local hunters also report that belugas at the floe-edge in spring prey mainly on Arctic cod and turbot under the ice.

Population and Hunting

The Inuit of the southeast Baffin region have long depended on the hunt of belugas in Cumberland Sound for their survival and culture. During the commercial whaling period, large numbers of belugas were killed. Hunters see variation in the numbers of belugas from year to year but they are seeing more belugas today than they did in the recent past. The annual quota for belugas hunted in Cumberland Sound was 35 whales between 1992 and 2001, and was increased to 41 whales in 2002. As a condition of increasing the quota, the community is collecting information on struck and loss rates and landings. Hunters hunt belugas mostly in summer and try to avoid taking calves and females with calves. Total landings between 1992 and 2001 fluctuated between 15 and 50, averaging 36 - 37 belugas per year. In 1990, the southeast Baffin - Cumberland Sound beluga population was designated as "Endangered" by the Canadian Committee on the Status of Endangered Eildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) following declines in beluga numbers estimated from aerial surveys data. Aerial surveys in 1999 indicated an estimated Cumberland Sound beluga population of 1,547.

See also

• Beluga