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Scientists, Inuit at odds over radio tagging

“We fill in the holes between what’s known as traditional knowledge.”

JOHN THOMPSON

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Repulse Bay hunters seized on this skinny beluga, caught in October, as a reason to be wary of radio transmitters – note the pins in the whale’s dorsal ridge. Scientists say the animal’s poor health is likely a result of the whale’s torn tail, which may have been caused by a polar bear attack. (PHOTO COURTESTY OF GN DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT)

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”The whale appeared to have suffered from starvation. And the meat was inedible. The whale was extensively tagged with what appeared to be a radio transmitter to track its movements,” said Steve Mapsalak, MLA for Akulliq, in the legislative assembly on Tuesday, Nov. 28.

The whale is unusual for a number of reasons, says Dr. Pierre Richard, a research scientist who studies beluga and narwhal for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

But Richard says people shouldn’t blame radio tags.

A more obvious problem the whale faced was having part of its tail bitten off by another animal. This would make it hard for the beluga to catch fish, and explain the animal’s skinniness, Richard says.

Killer whales are the common predators of beluga. But in this case, scratches and bite marks on the tail suggest the narwhal was attacked by a polar bear.

Bears occasionally stalk beluga at openings in the pack ice where whales surface.

The attack may also explain why the radio transmitter is missing, but the metal pins that held it in place are not.

Usually, a radio transmitter creates enough drag in the water that it eventually pulls free of the animal in about a year, taking the rods with it.

“This sounds a little cruel, but in fact the dorsal ridge of beluga is not very sensitive,” Richard says, explaining how beluga use their dorsal ridges to break holes in pack ice to breathe.

More than 100 beluga have been tagged by federal researchers in Canada since the 1990s. Out of them, the beluga caught by Repulse Bay hunters is the first to be reported with pins still in place, Richard said.

The beluga showed no sign of infection around the pins, so there’s no reason to believe they caused harm, he says.

Typically, a whale that has lost a radio tag will only show light scarring where the transmitter was anchored, Richard says.

But the sick beluga touches on a bigger issue, which is how Inuit hunters continue to be wary and suspicious of radio tagging animals.

That shouldn’t be the case, says Richard. In fact, radio tagging is one reason Nunavut’s sustainable harvests are possible.

That’s because radio tags are needed to make accurate estimates of beluga populations. And without these estimates, Nunavut’s Wildlife Management Board would have no way to reliably set total allowable harvests for animals.

The sick whale belonged to the Western Hudson Bay population, which includes about 50,000 beluga, making it Nunavut’s biggest beluga population.

Some 80,000 to 90,000 beluga are believed to live in the eastern Arctic.

In contrast, the Ungava Bay population is close to disappearing, and the Eastern Hudson Bay populations aren’t much better off.

Without knowing the range of beluga, researchers would have no way of accurately performing population counts by airplane, because they wouldn’t know what areas to fly over.

Tagging devices also help researchers estimate how many belugas are diving, out of sight, while a count is performed.

In the case of the Repulse Bay beluga, researchers tagged the animal in July 2005 in Manitoba’s Nelson River.

From there, the whale’s movements were tracked until late February 2006, when it last transmitted south of Cape Dorset.

Repulse Bay hunters were upset in part because they weren’t told local belugas were being tagged.

But DFO sent letters to the Kivalliq Wildlife Board each year the study took place, from 2002 to 2006, asking for support.

DFO received no reply, and their phone calls went unanswered. So DFO approached the NWMB directly, which approved the project.

New-found fears of animal tracking may not bode well for researchers on the onset of International Polar Year in 2007 and 2008, which will draw scientists from around the world to the Arctic.

And understanding the range and populations of beluga could become increasingly important as the Arctic warms, driving cold-adapted fish further north, and luring southern fish into Arctic waters.

This information is equally important when considering the impact of mining, or oil and gas exploitation.

Hunters often say Inuit have always known where the animals are, so such studies are unneeded.

Richard agrees traditional knowledge is invaluable.

But local knowledge is just that – local. By following the annual migrations of beluga, radio tagging lets researchers pull knowledge from each community together.

“We fill in the holes between what’s known as traditional knowledge,” Richard says.

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