Research Document 2017/016

Updated analysis of genetic mixing among beluga stocks in the Nunavik marine region and Belcher Islands area: information for population models and harvest allocation

By Mosnier, A., Hammill, M.O., Turgeon, S., and Postma, L.

Abstract

In the Nunavik marine region and Belcher Islands area, hunters harvest beluga from a mixture of stocks, including the Eastern Hudson Bay (EHB) summer stock that has been considered as Endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) since May 2004. The Nunavik Marine Region Wildlife Board developed a 3-year management plan in 2014 establishing a Total Allowable Take (TAT) based on the proportion of EHB beluga harvested seasonally in the different areas of Nunavik. For their part, the community of Sanikiluaq, located in the Belcher Islands (Nunavut), enacted in 2010 a voluntary annual closure of the summer beluga harvest for the period extending from the July 1 to September 30. The start date of the closure period was later changed to July 15 in 2012.

Proportions of EHB belugas in the harvest were estimated through genetic analyses of samples obtained from Inuit hunters. A total of 1,685 samples collected between 1982 and 2015 (including 246 new samples) were used to update the previous results for the different management areas. The analyses indicate that the proportions of EHB beluga in the Hudson Strait harvest were 10.8% in spring and 26.1% in fall which were similar to previous estimates. The number of available samples for north-eastern Hudson Bay in spring and in Ungava Bay during the fall was insufficient for inference. In the Belcher Islands, the proportion of EHB beluga in the spring harvest (April 1 - June 30) was estimated to be 1.5%. This proportion increased to 4.4% if spring was extended until July 14. In summer, the updated estimate was 25.6% (July 1 - September 30) and 0% in fall. Besides updating the estimated proportions of the different source populations occurring in the harvest, the additional samples contributed to a decrease in the uncertainty around the estimates.

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