BIOLOGIYA MORYA, 2010, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 56-63

Seasonal migrations of the Okhotsk Sea beluga whale Delphinapterus leucas from a summer Sakhalin-Amur aggregation

© 2010 O. V. Shpak¹, R. D. Andrews², D. M. Glazov¹, D. I. Litovka³, R. C. Hobbs⁴, L. M. Mukhametov¹

¹Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119071;
²University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences; Alaska SeaLife Center, Seward, AK 99664;
³ChukotTINRO-Center, Anadyr, 689000;
⁴National Marine Mammal Laboratory, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, WA 98115

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Seasonal migrations of Okhotsk Sea beluga whales from a Sakhalin-Amur aggregation were studied using satellite telemetry. Tags were deployed on four female beluga whales captured in August 2007 near Chkalov Island in Sakhalin Bay. Within 5 weeks after tagging, all 4 beluga whales departed from Chkalov Island and moved to Nikolay and Ulbansky bays of the Shantar Sea. Beluga whales stayed in the bays (predominantly, Nikolay Bay) until the end of autumn, and later they traveled north into deeper water. In winter through spring, beluga whales tended to be in areas with dense ice cover or close to the ice edge. During their winter migration, all tagged beluga whales usually did not travel together but, as a rule, followed the same route at a short time interval. The beluga whale whose tag transmitted for the longest period of time (9.5 months) returned to Chkalov Island at the end of May, thus completing the cycle of seasonal migration. Based on movement routes of the tagged beluga whales, we suggest that the Sakhalin-Amur and Shantar aggregations of beluga whale interact in autumn and may have similar winter migratory pathways.

Key words: beluga whale, Delphinapterus leucas, Okhotsk Sea, migration, satellite telemetry.