. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1985 PippARD: Status of St. Lawrence River Beluga 439 SHAPE OF BLOW DORSAL FIN FLUKES ON DIVE --^^^^^^^^^^^^^^. Figure 1. The Beluga or "white" whale, Delphinapterus leucas. explorers in the 1500's (Belanger 1971; Chambers 1912), and French settlers in the 1800's (Casgrain 1873) noted a great abundance of white whales. The first extensive investigation on the St. Law- rence Beluga was undertaken by Vladykov in 1938. He reported white whales were regularly present between Baie-Trinite and Natashquan; in Bale des Chaleurs, 30 miles above Quebec City
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1985 PippARD: Status of St. Lawrence River Beluga 439 SHAPE OF BLOW DORSAL FIN FLUKES ON DIVE --^^^^^^^^^^^^^^. Figure 1. The Beluga or "white" whale, Delphinapterus leucas. explorers in the 1500's (Belanger 1971; Chambers 1912), and French settlers in the 1800's (Casgrain 1873) noted a great abundance of white whales. The first extensive investigation on the St. Law- rence Beluga was undertaken by Vladykov in 1938. He reported white whales were regularly present between Baie-Trinite and Natashquan; in Bale des Chaleurs, 30 miles above Quebec City, and at Chicoutimi in the Saguenay river (Figure 3). Within this broad range Vladykov (1944) outlined the annual concentrations from Ile-aux-Coudres to Riviere-Ouelle to Cap Chat on the south shore, with large summering concentra- tions to be found at the mouths of the Saguenay and Manicouagan Rivers. No subsequent extensive study of the population was made until the 1970's when Pippard and Malcom (1978) described the Beluga's current distribution. They reported that white whales are observed occa- sionally along the Gaspe Peninsula, but very rarely at Quebec City, Chicoutimi and Baie Comeau. They are presently most common (Figure 4) from Ile-aux- Coudres to Les Escoumins on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, and Riviere-Ouelle to Rimouski on the south shore, with one summering concentration occurring at the mouth of the Saguenay River. Their surveys affirmed Sergeant's observation (Sergeant and Brodie 1975) that the large concentration of white whales sampled by Vladykov (1944) at the mouth of the Manicouagan and Outardes Rivers has disap- peared. In all, this reveals a marked decrease in the St. Lawrence white whales' distribution from 40 years ago. Evidence for Geographic Isolation The restricted distribution of the St. Lawrence Bel- uga suggests they are isolated from eastern Arctic Beluga concentrations, thereby forming a geographi- cally distinct stock. The most likely
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