NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Principal Investigator: Stewart, D. Bruce
Licensed Year(s): 1993
Summary: The researchers will be documenting Inuit traditional knowledge of the distribution, abundance and biology of High Arctic beluga and narwhal. This information will be used to identify research and management needs for local and co-management plans. A questionnaire will be used to interview elders and hunters; the interviewer will be a community resident. Information will be compiled into a repo...

Principal Investigator: Romano, Tracy
Licensed Year(s): 1993
Summary: This research will examine the nervous (i.e., brain) and immune systems of beluga by collecting these tissues from harvested animals for laboratory analyses. This study will help to determine how contaminants affect the health of belugas. In addition, the data collected may lead to a better understanding of why whales strand themselves on the shoreline as it has been suggested that beached whale...

Principal Investigator: Richard, Pierre
Licensed Year(s): 1993
Summary: Beluga whales will be herded into shallow waters with boats and kept there for a short period of time. Whale size and sex will be determined and a small sample of skin will be taken for DNA analysis. Satellite tags will be attached to the dorsal ridge area of ten whales. These tags will allow the researchers to locate the whales' movements and diving patterns over the next several months....

Principal Investigator: Finley, Kerry J.
Licensed Year(s): 1994 1993 1992
Summary: Since 1983, Word Wildlife Fund has supported research on the bowhead of Isabella Bay. This research, representing the first ever conducted on this species, has identified Isabella Bay to be one of the most important habitats for bowhead in the eastern arctic. The whales use the area to feed, socialize and shelter them from killer whales. The researcher will continue his study of bowhead behavi...

Principal Investigator: Cosens, Susan
Licensed Year(s): 1993 1992
Summary: In this final year of the study, the researcher will be testing the responses of beluga whales to previously recorded underwater (background) and boat noise. The whales' behaviour to the recorded noises will be measured as a way to determine if belugas alter their behaviour to boat traffic....

Principal Investigator: Cosens, Susan
Licensed Year(s): 1993 1992 1991 1990
Summary: In this final year of study, the researcher will be recording whale sounds as well as `normal' underwater sounds (background noise) and underwater sounds that boats make. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the sounds of boats interfere with the communication that occurs between beluga. The field crew will camp at Cape Lambton and make day trips to the recording sites out on the...

Principal Investigator: Richard, Pierre
Licensed Year(s): 1993
Summary: The North Water Survey for beluga will involve the use of satellite images to locate open water, and photography to instantly record large numbers of beluga and other marine mammals sighted. Work will be conducted out of Resolute and Pond Inlet, and the survey will take in all areas of open water north of 73'00 latitude. The survey is a result of a recommendation by the 1992 Canada/Greenland Com...

Principal Investigator: Stabler, Matt
Licensed Year(s): 1993
Summary: The Beluga Harvest Monitoring Program is an on-going program conducted by the Fisheries Joint Management Secretariat that involves the monitoring of the beluga harvest in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. Data and samples are collected from harvested whales in order to assess contaminant levels as well as population and reproductive parameters....

Principal Investigator: Patenaude, Nathalie
Licensed Year(s): 1992
Summary: The researcher will use a crossbow to fire an arrow with a stainless steel biopsy tip into landed beluga whales. Different tip designs will be tested to evaluate biopsy tip length and diameter required for effective sample retrieval, strength of bow string, and effective distance. Tissue surrounding the sample site will also be tested for tissue damage, and wounds will be photographed after each...

Principal Investigator: Savelle, James M.
Licensed Year(s): 1992 1990
Summary: The researcher and his team will take a series of measurements on crania and mandibles of naturally stranded early Holocene bowhead whales. This will enable the original length of individual bowheads at death to be determined. These data will have immediate applications in the fields of environmental change and Thule archaeology....