A pending decision by the Canadian Minister of the Environment regarding the status of the St Lawrence estuary beluga whales is having an impact on construction of an oil export terminal.
The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) has recommended that the Saint Lawrence estuary population of belugas be placed on the country’s endangered species list based on their numbers dropping from more than 10,000 to less than 1,000. If the Minister agrees, under Canadian law, critical habitat for the species must be protected.
Should the area of the estuary where the terminal is being constructed or the intended shipping routes be designated critical habitat, the functioning of the terminal may be altered. Once the decision is announced Trans Canada will be able to determine how the ruling may affect construction of the oil terminal.
Belugas are at higher risk for exposure to a variety of contaminants than many whale species because they spend a great deal of time in rivers, estuaries, and shallow coastal waters rather than in the open ocean. It is unclear at this time whether contaminant exposure is having any effect on beluga reproductive rates.
The St. Lawrence population has higher than normal (for whales) incidence of cancer, likely related to exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) produced by aluminium smelters in the region. Human cancer rates in the area, some of which have been positively correlated with PAHs, are also high. The St. Lawrence belugas also carry high loads of polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs)which are linked to immune system damage and secondary bacterial and parasitic infections.
While beluga whales as a species are consider Near Threatened internationally, the IUCN lists another population,that of Alaska’s Cook Inlet, as critically endangered with only about 200 mature adults. That population was taken during indigenous hunts and by commercial whalers and is not yet recovering. The Cook Inlet belugas are even more isolated than the St. Lawrence population, with most of the population remaining in the northern reaches of the inlet year round. This is the only beluga population determined to be genetically distinct.
Resources:
TransCanada pausing work on Quebec export terminal due to whales. 2014. Reuters News. Accessed online 5.12.2014
TransCanada Cacouna oil terminal construction stops in Quebec over belugas. Global News Canada. Accessed online 5.12.2104
Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) Species status report: Beluga whale. Accessed online 5.12.2014
IUCN Redlist: Delphinapterus leucas. 2012. Accessed online 5.12.2014
Martineau, D., Lemberger, K., Dallaire, A., Labelle, P., Lipscomb, T. P., Michel, P., & Mikaelian, I. (2002). Cancer in wildlife, a case study: beluga from the St. Lawrence estuary, Québec, Canada. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(3), 285–292.