How many beluga whales are left in Canada?

Hardly ANY! Every time we try to put them into Canada, they keep rolling back into the ocean. Ungrateful jerks.

In addition to the Canada populations below, there are shared Canada/Greenland populations as well.

Canada

Cumberland Sound: This stock numbers about 1,500 animals and is thought to have increased since the 1980s (COSEWIC 2004)

Ungava Bay: The Ungava Bay stock is too small to estimate. Hammill et al. (2004) recently estimated it at <50 animals; none were seen on a survey conducted in 2001.

West Hudson Bay: There are estimated to be more than 23,000 belugas in western Hudson Bay and more than 1,300 along the southern Hudson Bay coast (Richard 1991).

East Hudson Bay: Belugas in Eastern Hudson Bay have declined from 4,200 (SE 300) in 1985 to 3,100 (SE 800) in 2004 (corrected estimates) (Hammill et al. 2005).

St Lawrence River: The St. Lawrence subpopulation is estimated to be in the order of 900-1,000 individuals. There is no evidence of a significant trend in abundance since 1988 (COSEWIC 2004).

Eastern High Arctic/Baffin Bay: A survey in 1996 estimated 21,213 belugas (95% CI 10,985 to 32,619) in the waters surrounding Somerset Island: Barrow Strait, Peel Sound and Prince Regent Inlet (Innes et al. 2002). This estimate takes into account both whales missed by observers and those that might have been unavailable for detection due to diving behavior. It includes whales that move to West Greenland during the winter.