Science Advisory Report 2020/031
2020 Harvest Advice for Eastern Hudson Bay Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas)
Summary
- Genetic analyses have shown that the proportion of Eastern Hudson Bay (EHB) beluga in the harvest of hunters from Nunavik and the Nunavut community of Sanikiluaq varies spatially and seasonally.
- This advice is based on abundance estimates from the last survey (2015) as well as recent harvest (until 2019) and updated genetics (until 2018) information.
- For most areas the proportion of eastern Hudson Bay belugas in the harvest has changed little, except for the northeast HB harvest area where an increase from 30 to 45% was noted in the fall harvest.
- The annual Total Allowable Take (TAT) in the 2017-2020 management plan was 68 animals. A total of 70, 74, and 98 EHB beluga were estimated to have been harvested by communities in Nunavik and Sanikiluaq in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.
- The 2019 estimated abundance from a population model is 3300 (95% CI: 1900 – 5200) belugas (rounded to the nearest 100). This is similar, but slightly lower than the estimated abundance in 2016 of 3400 (95% CI: 2300 – 5400) from the last review.
- After correcting for the estimated struck and loss and non-reported harvests, an annual reported harvest of 58 EHB belugas will have a 50% probability of the population being above 3400 after five years.
- The Potential Biological Removal (PBR) for the stock is 14 animals assuming a recovery factor of 0.25.
This Science Advisory Report is from the February 17-22, 2020 Evaluation of impacts of Total Allowable Take over-runs on Eastern Hudson Bay beluga. Additional publications from this meeting will be posted on the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Science Advisory Schedule as they become available.
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