Young beluga’s love of Maritimes gives researchers some concerns
A group of marine researchers say a young beluga whale is too attached to the Maritimes for his own good.
Nepi, who’s estimated to be about 4-years-old, was spotted in Summerside, P.E.I., in early December, much to the delight of a local diving class.
“We heard a whale, or what we thought was something blowing, and then this whale appeared,” recalled Kimball Johnston, an instructor at Holland College’s commercial diving program.
The group, which included Johnston and 11 students, thought the whale would swim away and keep his distance. Instead, Nepi hung around the divers for several hours.
“He started coming around and was more curious, and was diving amongst our divers, and kept getting closer and closer to the point where he was right up next to them and they could see him very, very clearly,” he said.
Johnston, who’s been diving for more than 20 years, said he’s never seen a beluga so close to the Island.
While the students were excited to be in such close quarters with the whale, Johnston said they did not chase or entice Nepi to stay with them.
“We were there doing our thing and he was there doing his thing,” he said. “We were just going about our business and he just kept intruding.”
Robert Michaud, scientific di- rector of the Quebec-based Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals, says it’s worrying to see a young beluga getting friendly with people while away from home — especially when it’s a repeat offender, like Nepi.
Michaud’s group first came across the young whale in June 2017.
After getting a call about a beluga being stuck in the mouth of the Nepisiguit River in Bathurst, N.B., the group co-ordinated a rescue that involved moving him to the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, near Cacouna.
Michaud said the rescue was an experiment.
“The St. Lawrence beluga population is declining, they’re endangered, so we were wondering whether saving an animal would help recover the population,” he said. “The animal was not too far from home, it was feasible, so we tried it.”
The marine research group put a tag on Nepi so they could track him, but the mischievous whale managed to lose it after about 20 days.
A year after he went off the grid, Nepi was spotted by a wildlife photographer in Ingonish, N.S., and researchers managed to identify the whale by looking at the photographs. Now that the beluga has popped up once again in P.E.I., Michaud said he’s mystified as to why Nepi finds the Maritimes so alluring.