Beluga Whale : Rare Visitor In P.E.I. Waters
A lot of excitement around the Island with the sighting of Belugas in two areas; one in Colville Bay near Souris and the other in the Hillsborough River at Mount Stewart. It's rare for a beluga whale to be in this part of the waters in Eastern Canada especially so far upriver from the ocean as Mount Stewart.
It is a beautiful day to go sight seeing and Mount Stewart is only about a 35 minute drive. A friend, Marie, and I decided to check out the area and see if the whale was going to show itself.
We were not disappointed. We spotted the bridge where onlookers were gathered to see the Beluga Whale. It didn’t take long and a white hump appeared in the waters below the bridge.
I wasn’t able to get a full body photo of the beluga for he/she only exposed part of the body when coming to the surface.
About every five minutes the beluga would pop some part of his body out of the water. It was almost as if it was putting on a little show for the onlookers.
A view from the bridge of the Hillsborough River where the beluga has taken up residence.
Some of the onlookers on the bridge waiting for the beluga to pop up.
When the beluga was recently discovered in PEI waters, people were lined up to get a look at this rare visitor and police had to monitor the crowds. They were warned to keep a distance from the beluga and not be using boats or kayaks to get a closer look,
Belugas are endangered and being gregarious are used to being around other belugas. This lone one may look for other companionship which may not be good for the whale. If the beluga becomes too comfortable in Mount Stewart it may not leave and return to a healthier habitat in the St. Lawrence estuary with it’s beluga friends.
Watch from a distance
Tonya Wimmer, executive director of the Marine Animal Response Society, said it's "wonderful" for people to see the beluga, as long as they do it at a distance.
"These are really amazing animals. But it really is important that people are not doing anything to interact with it or, you know, throwing objects or things to try to attract it and never feeding them. So this really is really about the human behaviour in this situation, about how we can keep this animal safe as much as possible until it hopefully leaves on its own.
source
This is a case for the marine biologists to figure out what brought the lone beluga here and how to get him back to his proper home.
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T6
Photos & Text by @redheadpei
All Rights Reserved without my permission
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Thanks Pix!
What a special sighting, well worth traveling to see, once in a lifetime to make a very sublime Sunday sighting in nature Jo.
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Thanks so much Joan for your kind support. 🌸 It was a thrill seeing the beluga. The beluga is a beautiful mammal, much like a dolphin and has been known to save people from drowning.
Absolute treat seeing such an unusual mammal in the waters hopefully others follow and they use both regions for settling into.
I think the Beluga is on a people watching trip, haha ;)
I hope he finds his way home. !ENGAGE 15
Yes, I think the beluga was enjoying seeing all the people watching as he kept bobbing up and looking as if smiling at the people on the bridge.
Thanks for the engage tokens.🌺
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tokens.This is very lovely. It was almost as if the Whale was trying to pose for the camera, too bad she didn't bring out her full body. I can understand the excitement in the area, it is really something special
Thanks @empress-eremmy.🌸. I’m sure the beluga was enjoying the attention of the people on the bridge. It was a special treat to see this beautiful mammal.
What a sighting - I have seen kolphins and a killerwhale many years ago at a Zoo in Vienna, but seeing such a big animal in nature is something completely different. That must have been a great experience, Jo 😃
People are stupid when rare animals appear and it was good that they warned the people to not feed the beluga nor get close to it. To have the police taking care was also a good idea.
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It was a special treat to see the beluga showing off in the water, Hannes.
I’m glad people are respecting the whale and not getting too close. Belugas are wonderful, much like a dolphin. I hope everything works out and it eventually finds the way back to it’s pod. But for now people on the Island are loving seeing it.🐳
Thanks for the reblog and all the gifts dear Hannes .🤗🌟
Have a wonderful week!☀️
Oh yes, I believe you, it must have been great to see this huge mammal and I would love to see one myself ... maybe one day, who knows 😊
Thank you very much, dear Jo, I wish you also a wonderful new week with hopefully a lot of sunshine 🌞
!PIZZA and !BEER - sounds like a nice dinner :)
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.It is pretty cool getting to see the beluga and orca whales. They frequent the Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm in Alaska. We do not take many trips to the Turnagain Arm any more, but have seen them in the distance at our local beaches. It is pretty fun catch the whale spouts.
You and Shasta will have to make another trip again to see if the whales are around.
It was really cool seeing the beluga whale showing off in the water. A rare sight to see one up close from the bridge.🌸
We appreciate your work and your post has been manually curated by zoology team (oscurity,nelinoeva) on behalf of Amazing Nature Community. Keep up the good work!
Wuaoow !!! How lucky you are to be able to photograph such a beautiful specimen, thank you for sharing it with the hugging community!
Thanks. I appreciate the support!🌺
I was happy to see the beluga and get a few photos of the lovely creature.
How awesome is that! I'd love to be able to watch that. Hopefully people do respect them from a distance and don't try to interact; people can be really dense.
Hi WW. It was a wonderful experience to see the whale. I think the people here will watch out for the whale and make sure it is protected. Of course there might be someone who will try to get close but others will watch of that kind of activity.
How special Jo to see the Beluga whale and what a gorgeous animal. My son is a marine biologist and has a special bond with whales. He says that they are fun loving animals bond with people very easily and love coming to the surface to communicate and take a look at us. I am glad that there are strict rules about the safety of whales. I find it so hard to belief that they are endangered because of man, the terrible whaling industry killed off so many whales, they nearly wiped them out. Thank you for the post. 💜
Being a marine biologist, your son would know how wonderful these mammals are. I read somewhere that the female beluga only gets pregnant every 3 years and that is another reason they are endangered besides the cruelty of humans to the species.🐳
I din't know this little fact about female belugas. Animals are most so interesting, why we like to travel xx