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Highlights

Belugas target of a recovery plan

As long demanded by environmentalists, the St. Lawrence beluga population will in future be officially protected in its habitat. The announcement was made jointly on July 4, 1996, by federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Fred Miflin and federal and Quebec Environment Ministers Sergio Marchi and David Cliche when they made public the proposal to implement the St. Lawrence Beluga Recovery Plan that had been submitted to them by a group of independent experts some months earlier.

Many of the experts’ recommendations had already been acted on, and the remainder would be implemented under St. Lawrence Vision 2000, the new name of the St. Lawrence Plan.

The new measures included designation of the St. Lawrence belugas as a threatened population under the Quebec Act respecting threatened or vulnerable species. It was also planned to create the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park at the mouth of the fjord, where in addition there would be a series of monitoring and awareness activities aimed at minimizing disturbances of the belugas.

A multipartite working group would also be responsible for identifying contaminated sites along the river that might impact upon belugas. There were also to be additional research studies on the vulnerability of this population, as well as establishment of a committee to follow up on the implementation of planned measures.

In a way, the beluga is the emblem of the St. Lawrence Plan. Since its decline in the estuary throughout the 20th century is mainly due to water contamination, the health of the beluga population is an indicator of the health of the river itself.

Today, the St. Lawrence beluga population is estimated at 1,100 compared to some 5,000 at the turn of the XXth century. Though numbers have not increased since the Plan was implemented, they have at least stopped decreasing. In light of this stability over the past 25 years, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada has attributed the pod a less alarming status. Formerly in “danger of extinction,” the species is now considered “threatened,” as it appears on Quebec’s threatened or vulnerable species list.

News release