Beluga studies to get federal money

The federal Stewardship Habitat program has earmarked about $100,000 for two beluga projects in Nunavik.

A study on elders’ traditional knowledge of beluga will receive $86,150.

The project, administered by the Kativik Regional Government, will try to foster an exchange between Nunavik elders and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Elders, DFO scientists and fisheries guardians from Nunavik are to meet at the DFO’s Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Mont-Joli, where they will exchange traditional and scientific knowledge about belugas in the Ungava and Hudson bays. The discussions will be recorded on video.

The video be used at a later time, when the elders take a planned tour of Nunavik communities and speak in Inuttitut to the population about beluga management and a proposed beluga recovery plan.

The Nunavik Research Centre will coordinate another project, slated to receive $14,180, on noise levels generated by outboard motors in the eastern Hudson Bay.

Noise is thought to contribute to the decline in the numbers of beluga in the Natsapoka and Little Whale estuaries.

The Stewardship Habitat Program is a five-year, $45-million program to encourage partnerships among first nations, landowners, resource users, nature trusts, provinces, territories, the natural resource sector, community-based wildlife societies, educational institutions and conservation organizations.