Research Document - 2001/049
Population index estimate for the beluga of the St Lawrence River Estuary in 2000
By Gosselin, Jean-Francois, Lesage, V., Robillard, A.
Abstract
Abundance of beluga in the St Lawrence estuary was estimated from an aerial survey flown on 28 August 2000. Two fixed-wing aircrafts equipped with 9"x9" format mapping cameras flew 52 strip transects across the Estuary between Baie St-Paul and Rimouski for a total survey coverage of 49.3%. A visual survey to count beluga in the Saguenay River was flown at the same time. In the estuary, 453 (SE = 54) beluga were estimated to be at the surface between Kamouraska and Les Escoumins after correction for sun glare, and 6 beluga were counted downstream of Baie Ste-Marguerite in the Saguenay River. A 15% correction factor was applied to the estimated number of beluga at the surface in the estuary to account for beluga missed because they were underwater. Adding the Saguenay River count to the corrected estimate resulted in an index count of 527 (SE = 62). This corrected index used in trend analysis along with 5 equivalent survey indices obtained between 1988 and 1997, revealed no significant changes in abundance of beluga in the St Lawrence estuary since 1988.
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