736 



Abstract— Aerial surveys to estimate 

 the numbers of beluga whales, Delphi- 

 napterus leucas, were flown in James 

 Bay, eastern Hudson Bay, and Ungava 

 Bay in Canada in the summer of 1993 

 on transects systematically spaced 5 or 

 10 nmi apart. In James Bay and east- 

 ern Hudson Bay line-transect methods 

 were used. In Ungava Bay strip tran- 

 sects were used, and off-transect sight- 

 ings were also recorded. Beluga whales 

 were also counted on coastal flights in 

 eastern Hudson Bay and Ungava Bay. 

 James Bay and eastern Hudson Bay 

 were surveyed in August; Ungava Bay 

 in July and again in August. Watches 

 were kept from land at estuaries in 

 eastern Hudson Bay in 1993 and in 

 Ungava Bay in 1992 and 1993. 



The estimates of detectable beluga 

 whales (uncorrected for diving and 

 obsei-v-er errors) were 3141 (SE=787) 

 in James Bay and 1014 (SE=421l in 

 eastern Hudson Bay. A further 115-148 

 beluga whales were seen near the coast 

 of eastern Hudson Bay during the 

 coastal survey, but mostly away from 

 traditionally used estuaries. The esti- 

 mate for James Bay was nearly three 

 times the previous estimate, made in 

 1985, possibly because ice cover in 

 James Bay was much lower in 1993 

 than in the 1985 survey The 1993 esti- 

 mate for eastern Hudson Bay was close 

 to that for 1985. No beluga whales were 

 seen during aerial transects in Ungava 

 Bay, but they were seen ofT-transect 

 and on coastal flights, mostly in or near 

 the Whale River estuary in southern 

 Ungava Bay. The largest group sighted 

 and the greatest number seen in any 

 day consisted of 20 individuals, a mini- 

 mum size for the summer population in 

 Ungava Bay. An upper 90'7i- confidence 

 limit for summer numbers is impre- 

 cisely estimated at 150. 



Neither the coastal surveys nor the 

 land-based observations in Hudson Bay 

 and Ungava Bay indicated the presence 

 of large, dense herds that might have 

 been inefficiently sampled by transect 

 survey. 



Numbers and distribution of beluga whales, 

 Delphinapterus leucas, in James Bay, 

 eastern Hudson Bay, and Ungava Bay 

 in Canada during the summer of 1993 



Michael C. S. Kingsley 



Canadian Department of Fishenes and Oceans 



Maunce Lamontagne Institute 



850, Route de la mer 



Mont-Joli, PQ. G5H 3Z4 



Present address: Pinngortitaleriffik— Greenland Institute ol Natural Resources 



PO. Box 570 



DK-3900 Nuuk 



Greenland 

 Email addressmcskanaturgl 



Manuscript accepted 28 March 2000. 

 Fi.sh. Bull. 98:736-747 (2000). 



James, Hudson and Ungava bays are 

 summering areas for stocks of beluga 

 whales {Delphinapterus leucas) (Ser- 

 geant and Brodie, 1975; Finley et al., 

 1982; Smith and Hammill, 1986; Rich- 

 ard et al., 1990 ). There are several appar- 

 ently separate summer groups, which 

 include a summer group of -23,000 

 individuals in western Hudson Bay, a 

 group of 1500 individuals in the eastern 

 Hudson Bay arc, and a few individuals 

 in Ungava Bay (Smith and Hammill, 

 1986; Richard et al, 1990). Beluga 

 whales, probably composing other sepa- 

 rate groups, also summer in southern 

 Hudson Bay (Richard, 19931 and James 

 Bay (Smith and Hammill, 1986). 



A land claim agreement was signed 

 between the Inuit of the central and 

 eastern Canadian Arctic and the Gov- 

 ernment of Canada in 1990 (Anony- 

 mous, 1993). In eastern Hudson Bay, 

 this land agreement defined a marine 

 area around the Belcher Islands (the 

 "Nunavut Settlement Area") for the use 

 of the beneficiaries of that agreement 

 (Figs. 1 and 2). It also defined an area 

 north and east of the settlement area 

 (the "Equal Use and Occupancy Area") 

 to be shared by the Inuit of Nunavut 

 and those of northern Quebec. Other 

 provisions of the agreement, and of 

 the earlier James Bay and Northern 

 Quebec Agreement, assured the aborig- 

 inal people of a right to hunt beluga 

 whales in these waters. 



The hunting of beluga whales is 

 valued by Inuit in northern Canada as 



a means of procuring food, as a tra- 

 dition helping to define their culture, 

 and as a recreation. Maintaining beluga 

 whale hunting, and stocks adequate to 

 support it, are important objectives for 

 the Inuits. Commercial hunting in the 

 19th century severely reduced numbers 

 of beluga whales on the eastern coast 

 of Hudson Bay and in Ungava Bay and 

 they have not yet recovered ( Reeves and 

 Mitchell, 1987a; 1987b; 1989). These 

 stocks were listed as "threatened" and 

 "endangered," respectively, by the Com- 

 mittee on the Status of Endangered 

 Wildlife in Canada (Campbell, 1993), 

 and exploitation still occurs (DFO, 

 1996;NAMMCO, 1999) A low reproduc- 

 tive rate limits the species's potential 

 for increase (Sergeant, 1981; Kingsley, 

 1989); therefore careful monitoring and 

 management of stocks are appropriate. 



Population management requires per- 

 iodic evaluations of stock size, as a 

 basis for setting harvest levels and 

 for estimating the effect of harvest 

 on the population trend. Beluga whale 

 stocks are evaluated by aerial survey in 

 their summering areas. The previous, 

 and first, offshore aerial survey of 

 James Bay, eastern Hudson Bay, and 

 Ungava Bay was flown in summer 1985 

 (Smith and Hammill, 1986), and the 

 development in the early 1990s of a 

 beluga whale management plan for 

 northern Quebec rendered it timely to 

 update information on the population. 



This article reports the results of 

 aerial sui-veys flown in summer 1993. A 



