River jaunt may be an old beluga's swan song

[modrepub]

Update on Hélis the beluga whale that's been in the Delaware River since Monday or Tuesday.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/11408096.htm

River jaunt may be an old beluga's swan song

By Rory Sweeney

Inquirer Staff Writer


Though he has great stage presence and draws a crowd, Hélis the whale may be performing his final act, says the Canadian researcher who knows him best.

"He may be just trying to finish his life in a warmer area," said Robert Michaud, who believes Hélis belongs to a beluga whale population he has been tracking since 1986.

According to Michaud, who runs the nonprofit Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals, in Quebec, the white whale who has roamed the Delaware River this week is nearing the end of his 30-to-35-year life expectancy. He probably was pushed out of his male pod "by a fresher guy."

During the summer, most belugas travel north in gender-specific packs to catch fish among the cracked Arctic ice packs. While the St. Lawrence belugas stay in the estuary year-round, they still split up by gender. In the spring mating season, pods of males compete with each other for access to females, realizing that strength lies in numbers. When a male becomes too old to help his pod, Michaud surmises, younger males may force him out.

So Hélis, podless, may have begun to wander. Most of his behavior is normal for belugas, but he is alone and, as a further factor of concern, Michaud said this is the farthest south any beluga has ever been seen.

Though researchers don't know why Hélis is so far south, his journey upriver is not uncommon. The belugas that Michaud studies spend their entire lives in the St. Lawrence River, and other belugas travel up rivers in Russia and Alaska.

According to beluga expert Barbara Mahoney, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Anchorage, Alaska, Hélis may have happened upon a jackpot of shad during an annual spawning run and is now following his stomach.

"He ventured south and found some fish and just kept going," she said. "We have belugas who feed on salmon in bays and follow them up into rivers."

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[The Devils Advocate]

1. Thanks for the good read.

:)

[bain_sidhe]

2. non-registration link

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=671503

Short, but you don't have to register to read it.

[Moderator]

3. modreput

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