3

Pod of belugas
Around 2005
St. Lawrence River, Tadoussac region, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
GREMM
Unknown photographer

4

Daddy sculpin (Myoxocephalus groenlandicus)
18 October 2008
Pointe de la Rivière Ouelle, Rivière-Ouelle, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
Photograph: Judith Douville

5

Belugas breaking the surface with their heads to breathe
Around 2005
St. Lawrence River, Tadoussac region, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
GREMM
Unknown photographer

6

Beluga expelling air
Around 2005
St. Lawrence River, Tadoussac region, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
GREMM
Unknown photographer

7

A calf surfacing to breathe
Around 2002
St. Lawrence River, Tadoussac region, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
GREMM
Unknown photographer

8

Juvenile beluga surfacing near its mother
Around 2005
St. Lawrence River, Tadoussac region, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
GREMM
Unknown photographer

9

Juvenile beluga sticking close to its mother
Around 2005
St. Lawrence River, Tadoussac region, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
GREMM
Unknown photographer

10

"Nos ancêtres à l'oeuvre à la Rivière-Ouelle," written by Madame Elphège Croff
31 July 1931
Rivière-Ouelle, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
Mrs. Elphège Croff (1896?1986)
"Nos ancêtres à l'oeuvre à la Rivière-Ouelle," Montreal, Éditions Albert Lévesque, 1931

11

Belugas are social animals
Around 2005
St. Lawrence River, Tadoussac region, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
GREMM
Unknown photographer
Marine mammal research and education group (GREMM)

12

Conditions in the beluga's natural habitat continue to pose problems. Its situation remains worrisome. Should we say "sick as a beluga"? Since 1982, autopsies has been performed on every beluga found dead. These mammals are stressed by noise and by the deteriorating quality of their habitat. Pollution remains the main threat. Tissues of those belugas studied reveal greater levels of pollution than what was deemed harmful to lab animals. Reproductive disorders, cancer and gastric ulcers are only some of the most common ailments.

At the top of the food chain, belugas absorb all the contaminants that have been ingested by the smallest organisms, up to the fish that constitute their diet. This concentration of contaminants, from one level to the next, is what is slowly killing belugas. A nursing female provides her calf with milk that is more contaminated than what she consumes. How many years would it take for newborns to ingest milk free of contaminants?

13

Seagulls perched on a dead beluga
Around 2005
St. Lawrence River, Tadoussac region, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
GREMM
Unknown photographer

14

Dead beluga washed up on shore
Around 2000
St. Lawrence River, Tadoussac region, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
GREMM
Unknown photographer

15

Dead belugas must be treated as toxic waste
Around 2005
St. Lawrence River, Tadoussac region, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
GREMM
Unknown photographer

16

The Ouelle River flowing into the St. Lawrence River
18 October 2008
Pointe de la Rivière Ouelle, Rivière-Ouelle, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
Photograph: Judith Douville