by Scottie Westfall

Created on: August 01, 2008

In the northern oceans, there lives a small white whale. When sailors first heard its chirping calls, it reminded them of small birds, so they called the whale a sea canary. Today, we call this species the beluga whale, a derivative of the Russian word for white, "belyy." It is a beautiful whale with a pronounced "melon" on top of its head and "sweet" expression its face. It is adapted to living in the icy Arctic and sub-Arctic seas, losing its dorsal fin to keep it from becoming caught under the ice. To aid in it the pursuit of cephalopods and mollusks buried in the sand, the beluga can squirt a stream of water out of its mouth to wash the sand off its prey. This behavior is widely used among captive belugas in marine parks to squirt trainers. Its main predators are orcas, polar bears, and man, especially the Inuit, who consider the meat a delicacy. However, man is proving to be an even more potent threat than the orcas and polar bears. Pollution in the northern seas is taking its toll on the beluga whale. In some cases, the pollution is weakening the whale's immune system making it more susceptible to diseases, while in other cases, the whales become inundated with PCB's or develop tooth disorders from eating contaminated fish, which causes them to starve to death.

As a result of these threats, the beluga whale is considered vulnerable.

In the St. Lawrence Seaway

The best known population of these whales lives in the northwestern Atlantic and swims into the St. Lawrence Seaway. This population is best known because it is not far from the populated regions of Quebec. These whales live here the entire year, unlike other populations which only come to south when the ice forms. They also give birh to their calves here. The calves are born a deep gray in color after a gestation period of 15 months. Because the whales use waters that are upstream from some of North America's most developed industrial areas, the whales here are particularly prone to pollution. The calves are born into these polluted waters and will spend their entire lives, which can be up to 50 years, swimming in this water and eating fish that have consumed pollutants in this water. As a result, the whales often have high levels of pollutants on their flesh. When a whale wash up on the coast, they are often deemed hazardous waste because of high levels of PCB's in their bodies. It is not surprising, then, that cancer is widespread among the whales.

Despite all of this, large numbers of tourists go

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