INFREQUENT VISITORS
Juvenile beluga whales spotted in Ingonish Bay.
Dave Sigworth and his wife Mary Barton were hoping to see marine life when they signed up for a boat tour in Ingonish – and they certainly weren’t disappointed.
The couple from Ridgefield, Connecticut, visiting the island on vacation, was on board a Zodiac Adventures boat around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday when they spotted two juvenile beluga whales swimming in Ingonish Bay.
“We were expecting to see maybe pilot whales or dolphins, but we never expected to see beluga whales,” said Sigworth, who was traveling to Prince Edward Island when contacted by the Cape Breton Post.
“The word from the captain on the earlier tour (at 9:30 a.m.) was that they had seen beluga whales, so it certainly put a little buzz in the air among the people.”
Once the tour began, it took a little while for the captain to relocate the cold-water mammals, but once found the whales didn’t disappoint.
“They weren’t concerned about us at all, they came right up to the Zodiac and we think they were rubbing on the boat a little bit, and people were trying to touch them,” said Sigworth, who works at Maritime Aquarium in his home state.
“I’m not sure if anyone on the boat managed to touch them, but they were swimming around and under the boat.”
Sigworth, excited himself about the sighting, was amazed by the reaction local residents had when they learned of the whales.
“There were a couple of other people like fishermen with lobster boats that came over and it looked like they had gone back to port and got their families to check them out — some may not have seen belugas in Ingonish in their lifetime.”
Sigworth believes the whales were about eight to 10 feet long, noting one was white, while the other had a darker colouration.
Belugas, which are among the smallest species of whale, are mostly found in the Arctic Ocean. There are breeding populations near Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The whales are carnivores, meaning they eat meat. They’re known to eat snails, salmon, crabs, octopus, squid, cod and flounder, among other things. Close to 40 per cent of its weight is blubber.
Bruce Hatcher, marine ecologist and associate professor of biology at Cape Breton University, said the last known sighting of a beluga whale near Cape Breton was in August 2015 in the Ingonish and Pleasant Bay areas.
“It’s uncommon,” said Hatcher when asked if these types of whales are seen often near the island.
“These are rare things, it’s a big deal to see belugas and it does cause people to scratch their heads and ask what’s going on with these animals.”
Hatcher isn’t entirely sure why the whales are in warmer waters near Cape Breton.
“These are animals that are well outside of what’s considered to be their normal range,” said Hatcher. “This is an Arctic whale, a frozen ocean or very cold ocean whale.”
“The southernmost known breeding population in the Atlantic Ocean is in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and they’re listed as endangered – these are animals at risk, in that particular case, they’re listed as endangered because compared to the Arctic (the Saint Lawrence River is) quite a polluted river.”
Beluga whales have been seen as far away as Long Island, N.Y., as well as further south of the Avalon Peninsula on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Hatcher believes the whales spotted near Ingonish are likely from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence population.
“These are highly intelligent animals and along with the intelligence comes curiosity,” said Hatcher of the whales’ interaction with the tour boat Tuesday.
“If a boat behaves in a certain way and frequents certain places, whales quickly learn that the boat isn’t a bad thing and
they swim over to see – who’s to say what’s going on in the mind of a whale, but they’re not just some dumb machine.”
Adult male beluga whales can range from 13-20 feet in length and weigh between 2,000 to 3,000 pounds. Females are slightly smaller, according to National Geographic.
The weight of the pair seen in Ingonish is unknown.
It’s also unknown how long the whales live. Some believe they may live 35 to 50 years, while others believe they survive 60 to 70 years, based on teeth loss per year.
Susan MacLeod-Whitty has lived in Ingonish for 37 years. The last beluga sighting she remembers was in 1991.
“There was a single beluga that spent a few weeks in our waters at the end of August, beginning of September.” said MacLeod-Whitty of the sighting.
“It was very social and swam near the public beach in Ingonish alongside beachgoers when they entered the water. It was a spectacular sight and one we all enjoyed watching over those couple of weeks.”
MacLeod-Whitty said everyone in the community is excited about the whales.
“There’s lots of reminiscing about the year the beluga was here before,” she said. “People are talking about the sightings in the local stores and on the golf course — the rarity of seeing these beautiful creatures really has everyone amazed at the opportunity to see them so close to home — they’re so darn cute.”
Although people were trying to touch the whales from the boat on Tuesday, Hatcher said there are rules on touching marine mammal.
“Fisheries and Oceans Canada is very clear, there is to be no physical contact – you’re really not allowed to be touching them,” he said. “I haven’t heard of people being attacked by beluga whales, but it’s clearly the case and its part of DFO regulations.”
As for Sigworth and Barton, seeing the whales was among the highlights of their visit to Cape Breton.
“We stayed at Keltic Lodge and we were walking on the property Tuesday in the afternoon and we saw the belugas again from the Lodge property,” said Sigworth. “The fact they were so close to shore was really remarkable — people were still looking for them in the evening.”
“We were Facebooking and letting everyone know back in the United States how excited we were to be able to see the whales.”
According to local residents, the whales were still swimming in the Ingonish Bay area on Wednesday.