Beluga Bits journal - week of July 20, 2020

This was a busy week for me with the Beluga Bits project!

Image I really liked taken from the presentation about Beluga Bits.

On July 21st, I participated in a Beluga boat ride collecting snapshots of the belugas we encountered. Due to the time difference, it started at 6am. Captain Kieran talked a little in the beginning but it was mostly just a nice boat ride. The underwater camera was still difficult to see any whales, so I mostly watched on the above deck camera. The captain mentioned that the harbor was pretty quiet, he saw only one other boat, so it was interesting to see very little boat traffic out. He added that at this time, there are tours and state agencies out on the water watching for belugas and conducting other research data. Finally, almost returning to the dock, did we see some belugas! They didn’t stay around the slow trolling boat long and so the trip ended just shy of 2 hours. There were about 20 other people watching the ride with me this morning and while we weren’t able to capture many snapshots, it was still very neat to be involved. I thought it was a good use of time, because even if we didn’t see whales, that data is also a part of the research. It may lead to other questions of why? What is different now versus other times? 

On Thursday, July 23rd, I watched a video hosted by Captain Kieran talking to the lead researcher, Dr. Stephan Peterson about the project and I learned so much more about the project. These are my notes taken from their discussion:

In addition to the thousands of citizen scientists involved virtually in this project, Dr. Peterson also works with students who help to further classify the information brought back from the beluga boat trips. They talked a little about the boat and the trips out. For instance, in addition to the video being taken both above and below the water, the boat is also equipped with a hydrophone to collect the vocalizations of the belugas. Beluga whales are nicknamed the ‘Canaries of the Sea’ due to the many different clicks and chirps and other noises they make underwater. They start the project on July 15 and finish sometime in early September, depending on weather. The boat goes out on the Hudson Bay every day for 4 hours and is timed with the high tide, so the time changes almost every day.

Screenshot taken during Captain Kieran and Dr. Peterson’s talk.

When discussing more about the project, I was happy to know that the information they were discussing I had learned previously on their site and through the ‘TALK’ section of the site, so felt comfortable about dates and what information they were collecting (see my Beluga Snapshots page for more information about this). I did learn that 10 people will see and classify each photo which I thought was really interesting, as I’m sure those 10 people have different backgrounds and could possibly see things differently. It’s almost like an insurance plan, that not one person sees one picture and definitely knows what they are looking at. Dr. Peterson mentioned how difficult it is to identify individual belugas, especially above water, so the underwater camera is extremely helpful. Most times when looking for distinguishing scars, they turn white and belugas are white, so it can be tricky. Luckily, one good thing has resulted from this quarantined pandemic situation. More people than ever are at home and are excited and willing to spend their time on projects, like the Beluga Bits, so they have noticed a dramatic upswing in participants. For example, as of Christmas last year, all the data for 2016-2018 had been processed. They uploaded 2019 data earlier this year and are roughly 86% complete already! 

One thing that has resulted from this data collection is learning more about the belugas that visit this estuary in the western Hudson Bay. They have learned that some individuals, mostly males so far, have a strong curl in their pectoral fins. They are unsure of the purpose of this curl. Maybe because males are larger than the females they need better stabilization in the water, like wingtips on airplanes? Maybe it has something to do with sexual selection? This has become another reason to study this population and to learn more with these beluga snapshots. 

Image of curved pectoral fins of belugas mentioned previously. Screenshot during discussion.

They conclude the discussion mentioning that the belugas are curious and naturally inquisitive, so they easily come up to the boat and the cameras, which makes sorting through the videos easy. These whales feel safe enough to approach the boat and in turn, this becomes an easy and passive way to collect the data they need. However, sometimes, they are too curious and bite the camera (which does no harm to the belugas nor the camera). This then leads to some funny snapshots and the potential for dentistry questions for the future. Dr. Peterson is hoping to be in the area and out on the boats collecting data in the middle of August, so I’m looking forward to seeing him again and hopefully gaining further knowledge about the belugas as the season continues. I am excited to continue this project past the course assignment as the beluga season just started and I'm interested to see how this season plays out.

I was planning on attending the Beluga Boat ride this morning, July 26th, but the town of Churchill was having a power outage and this affected the boat trip. I am excited to attend another one this next week.