Beluga Whale High Residency Areas from Individual and Herd Tracking

Fisheries and Oceans Canada provides a geospatial dataset identifying areas of high residency for the St. Lawrence beluga whale population. The analysis combines fine-scale individual radio-tracking data from 2001 to 2005 with coarser, short-term herd visual tracking data from 1989 to 2008. High residency areas are defined based on net displacement speed thresholds of herds.

Use Cases

• Map high residency areas defined by net displacement speed thresholds for beluga whale herds.
• Analyze spatial overlap between individual radio-tracking data and herd movement patterns from visual tracking.
• Study changes in high residency area delimitation based on different definition criteria used in the analysis.

Strengths

• Data integrates two complementary tracking methodologies: individual radio-tracking and herd visual tracking.
• Temporal coverage spans nearly two decades, from 1989 to 2008 for herd tracking and 2001-2005 for individual tracking.
• Analysis is grounded in peer-reviewed research published in Marine Ecology Progress Series (Lefebvre et al., 2012).

Limitations

• The dataset does not represent the general distribution of the beluga whale population, only areas of high residency.
• The exact boundaries of high residency areas can change based on the definition criteria applied.
• Marginal cells in the analysis are not necessarily indicative of lower habitat quality.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Groupe de recherche et d’éducation sur les mammifères marins (GREMM).

Collection Method

Areas determined by analyzing net displacement speed of herds from visual tracking (1989-2008) and fine-scale movements from individual radio-tracking (2001-2005).

Time Range

Herd tracking: 1989 to 2008; Individual tracking: 2001 to 2005.

Freshness

Dataset metadata was last updated on 2026-03-24.

Geography

St. Lawrence beluga whale population distribution area.