When European sailors first arrived in the St Lawrence Seaway, they would have been surrounded by a throng of small, robust whales. These friendly, creamy-white belugas contrast sharply with the deep blue sea. The beluga lives in the St Lawrence River and in the Arctic near Hudson Bay. Numbers have shrank substantially due to commercial hunting. pollution and in the north to disruption of its habitat by hydroelectric dams. Scientists estimate there may be about 500 belugas left in the St Lawrence, though as many as 35,000 may still live in the north. Under Federal law, hunting of belugas was banned in 1979. In 1995, scientists published a recovery plan for the beluga in the St. Lawrence which recommends reducing toxic contaminants entering the river and urges that boaters leave the whales undisturbed.

Beluga whales endanger

Beluga's the Secret Travellers 1