For the second time in two years, a whale has made its way to Montreal, this time arousing much less wonder, due to fears for its health.
Updated yesterday at 6:47 p.m.
The minke whale was spotted for the first time on Sunday in Le Moyne Channel, the thin body of water separating Île Sainte-Hélène from Île Notre-Dame, near the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in Montreal.
Surprise: it is the same place, “within two meters”, as that chosen by the humpback whale observed in Montreal in the spring of 2020. Positioning in a very strong counter-current that surprises the scientific director of the Research Group and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM), Robert Michaud. ” [À l’époque]we thought it might be a good place to eat fish,” he recalls.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
People gathered on the Cosmos footbridge to observe the minke whale, Monday in Montreal
However, the analysis of the corpse of the humpback whale, which had been found stranded near Varennes a few weeks later in 2020, had shown that it had not eaten. “So do they feel safe there?” asks Mr. Michaud. I do not know. »
Get lost in the current
A minke whale can measure 6 to 9 meters in length. The precise size of this one has not yet been determined, but Mr. Michaud expects it to be a young specimen. “What we don’t know is why these animals come up the river,” he says. Are they young explorers, hungry animals that hunt for food and make a series of mistakes, like us who get lost in the forest? Or is it an animal that is sick, disoriented? »
One thing is certain, the cetacean is very far from its usual environment in the St. Lawrence estuary, the gulf or, ultimately, the Saguenay. But if it is unusual to see a whale swim upstream in this way, it is nothing new. “These are rare incidents, but not exceptional,” says Mr. Michaud.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
The minke whale in the waters of the St. Lawrence River
The last fin whale to have been reported upstream of Quebec was in Lévis, in 2018, specifies Mr. Michaud.
observe, observe, observe
Monday morning, volunteers from the Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Network went to the Cosmos footbridge, which spans the Le Moyne channel near the Biosphere, and were able to confirm the presence of the cetacean in the river.
The animal seems in good health, but the port of Montreal presents “more risks” for him. In 2020, the cause of the humpback whale’s death could not be precisely determined, recalls Mr. Michaud. It could just as well be a collision with a boat or the aftermath of an invasion of algae that caused a major infection, he specifies. In his view, neither climate change nor the pandemic have anything to do with the phenomenon.
“Our message is: the minke whale went up the river all the way to Montreal on its own, we hope it will return on its own,” continued Mr. Michaud. If the observation of the shore is of course allowed, no boat near the animal will be tolerated.