4672 x 3104 px | 39,6 x 26,3 cm | 15,6 x 10,3 inches | 300dpi
Date de la prise de vue:
14 août 2009
Lieu:
Longyearbyen, Svalbard
Informations supplémentaires:
The Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. This marine mammal is commonly referred to simply as the Beluga or Sea Canary due to its high-pitched twitter, it is also called White Whale. The beluga’s body size is between that of a dolphin’s and a true whale’s. It has a stocky body with a high percentage of blubber. Its sense of hearing is highly developed and it possesses echolocation, which allows it to move about and find blowholes under sheet ice. Belugas are gregarious and they form groups of up to 10 animals on average, although during the summer months, they can gather in the hundreds or even thousands in estuaries and shallow coastal areas. They mainly eat fish, crustaceans and other deep-sea invertebrates. The majority of belugas live in the arctic and the seas and coasts around North America, Russia and Greenland; their worldwide population is thought to number around 150, 000 individuals. They are migratory, the majority of the groups spend the winter around the arctic ice cap, but when the sea ice melts in summer, they move to warmer river estuaries and coastal areas. Some populations are sedentary and do not migrate over great distances during the year. The native peoples of North America and Russia have hunted belugas for many centuries. Whale hunting has been under international control since 1973. Currently, only certain Eskimo groups are allowed to carry out subsistence hunting of belugas. Other threats include natural predators (polar bears and killer whales), contamination of rivers, and infectious diseases. From a conservation perspective, the beluga was placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List in 2008 as being "near threatened". This beluga was one from a several-hundred group visiting the low coastal seas near Longyearbyen (Svalbard) in August 2009.
