ICE-WHALES
SVALBARD
As part of the ICE-WHALES project (2015-2019), the Norwegian Polar Institute designed a survey to count the beluga population in the Svalbard archipelago, using data from tagged whales in two periods (1995-2001 and 2013-2016) that was flown during the summer of 2018. It resulted in an estimate of 549 individuals and a reevaluation of the population as endangered (EN).
How many belugas?
It was a common impression that there were many belugas in Svalbard. They are highly mobile and remain most of their time very close to the coast. This increases the chances of them being observed. It took many years of studies with GPS data loggers installed in the dorsal ridges of these animals to gain the information necessary to design a survey that would maximize the statistical power and minimize the error in counting this population. The whole coastline of the Svalbard archipelago, transects in main fjord systems and offshore transects were flown, using a fixed-wing plane and the Sysselmester SUPER PUMA helicopters in a limited time of 3 weeks survey between late-July and mid-August 2018, as exposed in Vacquié-Garcia et al. 2020 ©
It was the first time I flew in a helicopter, in a fix-wing plane, the first time I saw polar bears, belugas, walruses, glacier fronts… and the first time I was paid to work as a biologist. A life-changing experience. The seed for me living in Svalbard was planted then.