Monitoring the State of the St. Lawrence River PDF Download

Author: Lena N. Measures
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781100130101
Category : White whale
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Jean-François Gosselin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Whale populations
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Author: Canada. Environment Canada
Publisher: Sainte-Foy, Québec : St. Lawrence Vision 2000
ISBN: 9780662332503
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1

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Author: Véronique Lesage
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Annick Faucher
Publisher: National Library of Canada
ISBN: 9780315496361
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309440513
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 147

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Book Description
Marine mammals face a large array of stressors, including loss of habitat, chemical and noise pollution, and bycatch in fishing, which alone kills hundreds of thousands of marine mammals per year globally. To discern the factors contributing to population trends, scientists must consider the full complement of threats faced by marine mammals. Once populations or ecosystems are found to be at risk of adverse impacts, it is critical to decide which combination of stressors to reduce to bring the population or ecosystem into a more favorable state. Assessing all stressors facing a marine mammal population also provides the environmental context for evaluating whether an additional activity could threaten it. Approaches to Understanding the Cumulative Effects of Stressors on Marine Mammals builds upon previous reports to assess current methodologies used for evaluating cumulative effects and identify new approaches that could improve these assessments. This review focuses on ways to quantify exposure-related changes in the behavior, health, or body condition of individual marine mammals and makes recommendations for future research initiatives.

Author: St. Lawrence Beluga Recovery Team
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Endangered species
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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This document reviews the current state of knowledge about St. Lawrence belugas, recommends a series of actions for ensuring their survival and proposes an implementation schedule. The goal of the Recovery Plan is to bring population numbers and conditions to a state where natural event and human activities will not threaten the survival of the St. Lawrence beluga whale population. A subsidiary goal is to improve the status from endangered to vulnerable, as defined by COSEWIC.

Author: D. W. Doidge
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Little Whale River, Estuary (Québec)
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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... The number of whales in the Nastapoka estuary and their reaction to disturbance was recorded during July and August of 1983-4. (Caron 1987, Caron and Smith 1990). Observations, spanning a shorter time, were made in 1993 (Doidge 1994) and 2000 (present work). The purpose of the study in 2000 was to document the current use of the estuary by humans and beluga whales. In this paper, I discuss the new data in the context of the previous studies and re-examine the data from 1984. ... Summary and conclusions: The extent to which estuaries are important to beluga is not clear. Apart from aerial surveys, and to some extent satellite tagging, most other studies of belugas generate data that is specific to belugas in estuaries. Estuaries are the sampling sites. This can introduce a land-based bias when assessing what habitat is critical for the species. The number of belugas that can be observed, at any one time, during August at the Nastapoka River, has sharply decreased from the number seen in the 1980s. Several disturbance factors have likely caused the decline: boat traffic in the area is now almost daily; beluga hunting is now concentrated in the first week of August which may cause greater disturbance than harvesting in the past which occurred from June to September. A reduction in numbers at the Nastapoka is not direct evidence that the eastern Hudson Bay population has declined because to the concomitant increase in disturbance makes the situation difficult to interpret. However, the decrease in the overall mean age of the population does indicate a reduction in population size. Belugas in estuaries are highly susceptible to hunting pressure as they are easier to catch there, than in coastal or offshore waters. This susceptibility is not necessarily a management problem if the population size permits harvesting. It can be a problem, though if estuarine groups are considered management units (the whales that hunters want access to kill) or if the whales are considered special genetic units. In both of these cases, a large "estuarine" population becomes a management goal. A comparative study is planned for 2001 at Little Whale River, an estuary that has a different pattern and history of disturbance. (Au)--ASTIS online database.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781100199924
Category : Endangered species
Languages : en
Pages : 91

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The St. Lawrence Estuary beluga population was listed as threatened under SARA in May 2005. In 1986, Fisheries and Oceans Canada set up the Ad Hoc Committee for the conservation of the St. Lawrence beluga, the objectives of which were to identify factors that threatened the population's survival and to make recommendations to favour its recovery. This project was carried out jointly by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment Canada from 1988 to 1993 as part of the St. Lawrence Action Plan (SLAP), with the following objectives: to minimize disturbance to the beluga population, to combat the discharge and spread of toxic chemical products, and to conduct further research on the beluga. A fourth objective was added in 1989: to facilitate public access to information in order to raise awareness in Canada and Quebec of the St. Lawrence beluga. This document includes information about recovery and background of the beluga whale in the St. Lawrence Estuary.--Includes text from document.

Author: Alexander J. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Most beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) (Pallas 1776) living in areas of seasonal sea ice use estuaries periodically during summer. Beluga estuary-use hypotheses include feeding, calving, moulting, killer whale (Orcinus orca) predation, human predation, thermal advantage, and phylogenetic inertia. The hypotheses may not be mutually exclusive and may vary with populations or regions. This study describes aspects of beluga whale summer-ecology by studying the association between inter-annual water levels and beluga habitat selection in the Nelson River estuary. Flow rates from upstream Limestone Dam doubled from the dry years of 2002-2004 to the wet year of 2005. I used radio-tracking data (N=15, 2002-2005) and aerial surveys (2003, 2005) to test the hypothesis (H1) that belugas were farther out in the estuary during the wet year. Model variables included year, day, time, tide and age-sex. Observed location-habitat distances for the radio-tracking and aerial survey data were compared to the random equivalents using a Kolmogorov-Smimov (KS) test. A cumulative sign test determined the timing of a beluga shift in movement behaviour on August 10th. Pre-August 10th radio-tracking locations provided the spatial-temporal boundary of the Nelson River estuary. General Linear Models (GLM) for both the telemetry and aerial survey data show an association between beluga distance to the river-mouth and year. Study results provide evidence to weigh the main estuary-use hypotheses and contriubte to knowledge of beluga ecology and management.