Very rare phenomenon on the North Shore. A small group of killer whales was observed earlier this week in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This population of cetaceans, whose status and movements are little known, was once more present in Quebec waters, including in the estuary.
According to information obtained by The duty, a small group of at least three killer whales was observed Monday off the village of La Tabatière, on the Lower North Shore. This observation was documented by scientists on mission aboard the research vessel Coriolis II.
This is one of the very rare observations in recent years in the Quebec portion of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, according to data from the work of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
In the past, more precisely between 1984 and 1999, a group of four or five killer whales could be observed from time to time in the Mingan Islands sector. Within this group was a male nicknamed “Jack Knife,” recognizable because of his notched dorsal fin. He was last seen in 2003. The killer whales Jack Knife, Jessie, Javelot and Junior “had become almost legendary,” according to the Mingan Islands Research Station, “after being seen on a few occasions attacking minke whales.”
Biologist Jean-François Gosselin, from the Pelagic and Ecosystem Sciences Directorate of the federal ministry, emphasizes that the documented cases of killer whales in the waters of the St. Lawrence now come “mainly from observations made along the west coast of Terre -Neuve”, but also in the Strait of Belle Isle sector. Other cases have been reported in southern Nova Scotia.
In the case of aerial surveys carried out on a regular basis by the DFO in recent years, barely a few dozen individuals have been observed, usually alone, or in small groups of three to six individuals. The DFO also recently reported the sighting of a group of 30 killer whales south of Newfoundland, specifying that it was “one of the largest groups recorded in the region over the last century”.
Killer whales vs belugas
Killer whales, which appear on the list of 13 cetacean species that can be observed in the St. Lawrence, are however absent from the waters of the estuary, or almost. The last confirmed sighting dates back to 2003. Two killer whales were then seen off the coast of Les Bergeronnes. This was the first sighting in the estuary since 1982.
Historically, however, these cetaceans seem to have frequented the waters of the estuary more assiduously, even in the Rivière-du-Loup sector, recalls Jean-François Gosselin. “Attacks on belugas have been reported. Seal hunters from Escoumins with whom we worked in the 1990s also told us that they had seen killer whales more frequently in the past,” explains the scientist.
The killer whale is a predator that can live a long time. Females can live up to 80 years and males up to 40 or even 50 years. Body length can reach 9 m for males and 7.7 m for females.
“The distribution of killer whales in the Northwest Atlantic and eastern Arctic is not well documented,” according to DFO. They have been observed more frequently in the eastern Arctic in recent decades, particularly in Hudson Bay. In the Arctic, receding sea ice appears to give killer whales access to more habitat and prey.