Beluga cams capture whales’ annual journey

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/07/2015 (3196 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They’re here, they’re huge, and they’re ready for their close-up.

This time every summer, more than 56,000 belugas — a full third of the global population — swim to estuaries in Manitoba, the largest gatherings taking place at the mouths of the Nelson, Churchill and Seal Rivers. Scientists say they come to molt (yes, they shed their skin), eat, socialize and seek refuge from predators, and they make a lot of noise doing it, with calls ranging from high-pitched, bird-like chirps to deep, animal grunts.

“It sounds like a jungle out there, if you listen to what comes out of a hydrophone,” said Pierre Richard, a  retired beluga expert.

Those sounds they make earned them the name “canary of the sea.” Many of the sounds are probably “contact calls,” used to let other whales know where they are, and keep track of where everybody else is, he explained. Belugas travel in groups of five to 10 or more, and are highly social and inquisitive animals. The Hudson Bay variety is especially habituated to humans and boats, and have been known to rub up against vessels in curiosity; they apparently love the bubbles coming out of outboard motors.

Belugas are toothed whales, known for their white colouring and smiling faces. They use echolocation to get a sense of their environment, and a full-sized male can be up to six metres and weigh more than 3,500 pounds. They’re born brown or pink, but quickly turn light grey, and stay that way for about two years. They munch on capelin, small, schooling fish in the Canadian Arctic.

Hayley Shephard is the captain and “narrator” of the “Beluga Boat,” sailing the Churchill River waters to catch the belugas on an underwater camera. She’ll be the voice of the “Beluga Cam,” launched every year by Explore.org, the same group in charge of an annual Polar Bear Cam. This year’s session started Monday, and the Free Press will be live streaming the footage online.

“Live cameras situated in wild and remote places, capturing nature at its best, is one of the most non-intrusive ways to have everybody in the world experiencing these animals in their natural habitat,” Shephard wrote in an email. “People’s lives are being changed as they witness in real time the world of the beluga whale, or polar bear, or grizzly.”

“I am continuously mesmerized by the belugas every day that I go out,” she added. “We see something new each and every day.”

 aidan.geary@freepress.mb.ca