Research Document - 2005/012

Harvest statistics for beluga whales in Nunavik, 1974–2004

By Véronique Lesage and D. William Doidge

Abstract

The Nunavik communities have traditionally harvested beluga along the eastern Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay coasts of northern Quebec. Harvest statistics have been monitored over the last 30 years. A first report in 2001 summarized and qualified the information collected since 1974 (Lesage et al. 2001). The current report provides an update of this information for the period 2001–2004. A general decline in annual harvests was observed between the periods preceding and following quota introduction in 1986 after which, total harvests were less variable between years. Annual harvests were relatively similar over the last three years (2002–2004) at 168 to 216 beluga per year, but peaked at 395 beluga in 2001, a level last attained in 1980. Compliance with management measures improved during the period 2001–2004, and especially during 2002–2004, as indicated by a greater transmission of information through weekly reports, and participation in the sampling program, and by a general reduction in the total harvest in all regions of the Nunavik. In spite of these improvements, regional allocations were exceeded almost each year and in each region. Hudson Strait historically supported the largest harvests, and continued to do so during 2001–2004, with 60–84% of the allocations and 58–84% of the total annual harvest by Nunavik communities. One noticeable change during the period 2001–2004 in comparison with previous years was the increase in the number of communities harvesting in Hudson Strait. Although white beluga dominated the harvest, with 58% of the total catches, grey beluga, including dark grey animals, represented 42% of the catches during 2001–2004. The sex composition of the harvest indicates that females were generally killed as often as, or more often than males, both when considering genders independently of their colour, or when considering either white or grey beluga independently. The harvest during 1993–2004 also comprised a larger proportion of younger individuals than the harvest from the mid-1980s, resulting in a distribution with a median age of 9.5 yrs, compared with 13.0 yrs in the 1980s. This tendency to harvest younger individuals was also observed in the harvests of eastern Hudson Bay (median age = 8.5 yrs) and Hudson Strait (median age = 9.5 yrs.

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