Movement and aggregation of Eastern Hudson Bay Beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas): A comparison of patterns found through satellite telemetry and Nunavik Traditional Ecological Knowledge.(ARCTIC)(Report)

ABSTRACT. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) consists of the collective knowledge, experience, and values of subsistence communities, while Western science relies on hypothesis testing to obtain information on natural processes. Both approaches provide important ecological information, but few studies have directly compared the two. We compared information on movements and aggregation of beluga whales obtained from TEK interview records (n = 3253) and satellite telemetry records of 30 whales tagged in eastern Hudson Bay, Canada, using geographic information system (GIS) approaches that allowed common formatting of the data sets. Estuarine centres of aggregation in the summer were evident in both data sets. The intensive use of offshore areas seen in the telemetry data, where 76% of the locations were more than 15 km from mainland Quebec, was not evident in the TEK data, where only 17% of the records indicated offshore locations. Morisita's index of similarity indicated that TEK and telemetry data distributions varied with season, with the highest similarity in winter (0.74). Location and movement data from the telemetry study were limited by small sample size and short tag deployment times, while TEK data were biased by spatial coverage and coastal travel habits. Although the two data sets can provide complementary information, both suffer from weaknesses that need to be acknowledged when these data are adapted for use in resource management.

Key words: Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), telemetry, beluga whales, home range, kernel, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Ungava Bay, Labrador Sea, resource management

RESUME. Les connaissances ecologiques traditionnelles (CET) consisten en I'ensemble des connaissances, de l'experience et des valeurs des communautes de subsistance, tandis que la science occidentale s'appuie sur la mise a l'epreuve d'hypotheses dans le but d'obtenir de l'information sur les processus naturels. Bien que ces deux demarches permettent d'obtenir d'importants renseignements sur l'ecologie, peu d'etudes ont etabli une comparaison directe entre ces deux demarches. Nous avons compare des donnees sur les mouvements et le rassemblement des belugas, donnees obtenues a partir de CET prelevees au moyen d'entrevues (n = 3253) ainsi qu'a patir de resultats de telemetrie par satellite sur 30 baleines marquees dans I'est de la baie d'Hudson, au Canada, a l'aide de systemes d'information geographique (SIG) qui ont permis le formatage commun des ensembles de donnees. Pendant l'ete, les centres de rassemblement en estuaire etaient evidents dans les deux ensembles de donnees. L'utilisation intensive des zones au large en ce qui a trait aux donnees de telemetrie, ou 76% des localisations se situaient a plus de 15 km du continent quebecois, n'etait pas evidente dans le cas des donnees des CET, ou seulement 17% des resultats indiquaient des localisations au large. Lindice de similarite de Morisita indiquait que la repartition des donnees obtenues par CET et par telemetrie variait d'une saison a l'autre, la similarite la plus grande ayant ete atteinte l'hiver (0,74). Les donnees de localisation et de mouvement decoulant de I'etude de telemetrie etaient limitees par la petite taille de l'echantillon el les courtes durees de deploiement des etiquettes, tandis que les donnees provenant des CET etaient biaisees par l'espace a couvrir et les habitudes de deplacement sur la cote. Bien que les deux ensembles de donnees puissent fournir de l'information complementaire, tous deux possedent des faiblesses qu'il y a lieu de reconnaitre lorsque ces donnees sont adaptees a des fins de gestion des ressources.

Mots cles: connaissances ecologiques traditionnelles (CET), telemetrie, beluga, territoire, noyau, baie d'Hudson, detroit d'Hudson, baie d'Ungava, mer du Labrador, gestion des ressources

Traduit pour la revue Arctic par Nicole Giguere.

INTRODUCTION

TEK has been defined as the knowledge claims of persons who have a lifetime of observation and experience of a particular environment, and as a result function effectively in that environment, but are untutored in the conventional scientific paradigm (Usher, 2000). As a result of policy developments in Canada, TEK is increasingly being incorporated into environmental assessment and resource management in northern communities (Usher, 2000). Many promote the use of TEK and its integration with science because it reflects the long observational experience and resource use of local people and provides a longer historical record than scientific data in remote areas (Ferguson and Messier, 1997). However, TEK and science differ in the ecological information they provide. These differences in both observational intensity and geographic coverage may lead to different conclusions about the environment and the size of populations and thus influence management decisions. To date, few studies have attempted to compare and contrast these two data sets, or to examine critically the differences in ecological understanding of beluga whales arising from the use of TEK versus Western scientific data.