11 tagged Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) were tracked during the daytime movements as well as the feeding behaviour in the St. Lawrence River estuary. Kernel density was applied to derminate the high density feeding areas of all individuals combined (30, 40, 50, 60, 75, 95 %).Doniol-Valcroze T, Lesage V, Giard J, Michaud R, 2012. Challenges in marine mammal habitat modelling: evidence of multiple foraging habitats from the identification of feeding events in blue whales. Endang Species Res, Vol. 17 : 255–268, doi : 10.3354/esr00427(English version only)

The objective of the study was to describe the spatial distribution of krill in eastern Canadian waters using a statistical modelling approach in support of the identification of important habitat for the western North Atlantic (WNA) blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) were used to predict ‘Significant Aggregations of Krill’ (SAK), i.e., areas where dense krill aggregations would have a greater probability of occurring. SAK cover less than 2% of the entire spatial domain and their location varied among krill categories and seasons. These SAK are interpreted as areas where environmental conditions promote krill aggregation on a regular basis and therefore are potentially important for WNA blue whale foraging in eastern Canadian waters.Plourde, S., Lehoux, C., McQuinn, I.H., and Lesage, V. 2016. Describing krill distribution in the western North Atlantic using statistical habitat models. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2016/111. v + 34 p.

The St. Lawrence Estuary is known as a summer foraging area for several species of marine mammals, including several species of rorquals. Among these is the blue whale, which feeds almost exclusively on euphausiids. Therefore, the abundance, distribution and local density of krill should logically be a strong explanatory variable for the distribution of blue whales. However little is known about the spatial association of blue whales with the aggregation dynamics of krill in eastern Canada. Six years of acoustic surveys, conducted in August from 2009 to 2014, were undertaken to study the medium- and small-scale distribution of krill within the northwestern Gulf of St. Lawrence and estuary. The data shows a mosaic of the maximum annual density of arctic krill (T. raschii) made from these surveys.McQuinn, I.H., Gosselin, J.-F., Bourassa, M.-N., Mosnier, A., St-Pierre, J.-F., Plourde, S., Lesage, V., Raymond, A. 2016. The spatial association of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) with krill patches (Thysanoessa spp. and Meganyctiphanes norvegica) in the estuary and northwestern Gulf of St. Lawrence. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2016/104. iv + 19 p.

Sightings data were collected by the Mingan Island Cetacean Study (MICS) from 1980 to 2008 with annual surveys realised in the Gulf of St. Lawrence between the end of may and early november. Surveys were conducted using inflatable boats enabling the close approaches necessary to photograph and biopsy blue whales.The aim of this project was to provide additional information for designating blue whale critical habitat as required under the Canadian Species at Risk Act.For more details consult the following report:Ramp, C. and Sears, R. 2013. Distribution, densities, and annual occurrence of individual blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada from 1980-2008. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2012/157. vii + 37 p.http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/csas-sccs/Publications/ResDocs-DocRech/2012/2012_157-eng.htmlData of blue whale sightings, collected by the MICS, have been analysed per km of effort in 3 x 3 km grid cells in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for the 2000-2008 period.

A modelling analysis conducted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) identified these areas as the most suitable habitat for Blue whales: Gulf of St. Lawrence, waters off the southern coast of Newfoundland, the region of Mecatina Trough, the Esquiman Channel and the continental shelf margin off Nova Scotia. They represent important areas for foraging, feeding and socializing for Blue whales. The sources of data used to determine these important areas (by the enclosing boxes method) and the annual and seasonal cycles of Blue whale travel patterns include, but are not limited to, radio and satellite telemetry, passive acoustic monitoring, line-transect aerial surveys, anecdotal reports of observations and modelling.This layer does not represent the general distribution of the Blue whale. Important areas have been identified by reviewing several sources of information and to the best of researchers' knowledge. Several information about Blue whales, their behaviour and habitat use are still unknown. Data is scarce in some areas during winter periods. Observation efforts mostly occur during the summer period, however, data sources can validate their presence during seasons when the observation effort is lower. The Mecatina trough region represents an important area based on historical and non-current data. The presence data per month refers strictly to the information available in the cited research document, and does not express the absence of the species outside the months when a presence was validated. The presented information is valid until the following research survey.Reference:Lesage, V., J.-F. Gosselin, J. W. Lawson, I. McQuinn, H. Moors-Murphy, S. Plourde, R. Sears. and Y. Simard. 2018. Habitats important to blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in the Western North Atlantic. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2016/080: iv + 50 p.

Krill is a generic name for crustaceans of the order Euphausiids, most of which are known to be Thysanoessa raschii and Meganyctiphanes norvegica in eastern Canada. Krill is an important food resource for many marine mammals, in particular the blue whale.The maps show the points of high krill concentration per month from April to November. Each point gives the number of years of high aggregation probability (6 to 10 years). The data were produced from a mathematical model developed in Plourde et al. 2016. The model has allowed to calculate the probability of meeting a strong aggregation of krill over a period of 10 years. High krill aggregations are defined as the 95th percentile of predicted biomass in 10 x 10 km cells covering the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence.Additional Information:Plourde, S., Lehoux, C., McQuinn, I.H., and Lesage, V. (2016). Describing krill distribution in the western North Atlantic using statistical habitat models. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2016/111. v + 34 p.McQuinn, I.H., Gosselin, J.-F., Bourassa, M.-N., Mosnier, A., St-Pierre, J.-F., Plourde, S., Lesage, V., Raymond, A. 2016. The spatial association of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) with krill patches (Thysanoessa spp. and Meganyctiphanes norvegica) in the estuary and northwestern Gulf of St. Lawrence. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2016/104. iv + 19 p. The data are incomplete upstream of Pointe-des-Monts because of the lack of water height anomalies in the area (variable being used to predict aggregations of krill). A less number of years with a high aggregation of krill is thus represented but that should not be interpreted as a less favorable zone compared to areas East of Pointe-des-Monts.

The blue whale (Balaenopterus musculus) is a wide-ranging cetacean that can be found in all oceans, inhabiting coastal and oceanic habitats. In the North Atlantic, little is known about blue whale distribution and genetic structure, and if whether animals found in Icelandic waters, the Azores, or Northwest Africa are part of the same population as those from the Northwest Atlantic. In the Northwest Atlantic, seasonal movements of blue whales and habitat use, including the location of breeding and wintering areas, are poorly understood.The behaviour of remotely-monitored animals can be inferred from a time series of location data. This is because animals tend to demonstrate stochasticity in their movement paths as a result of spatial variation in environmental characteristics, such as topography or prey density (Curio 1976; Gardner et al. 1989; Turchin 1991; Wiens et al. 1993). Predators are expected to decrease travel speed and/or increase turning frequency and turning angle when a suitable resource, e.g., food patch, is encountered (Turchin 1991), otherwise known as area-restricted search (ARS). In contrast, animals in transit or travelling tend to move at faster and more regular speeds, with infrequent and smaller turning angles (Kareiva and Odell 1987; Turchin 1998).Based on satellite telemetry to track the seasonal movements of 24 blue whales from eastern Canada in 2002 and from 2010 to 2015, it was possible to estimate trajectories and locations where ARS behaviour of blue whales was inferred at a 4h time interval.To assess blue whale movements and behavior, a Bayesian switching statespace model (SSSM) was applied to Argos-derived telemetry data (Jonsen et al. 2005; Jonsen et al. 2013). An SSSM essentially estimates animal location at fixed time intervals, movement parameters and behavioral patterns.Two important sources of uncertainty can be measured separately: estimation error resulting from inaccurate observations (Argos location error) and process variability linked to the stochasticity of the movement process (behavior mode estimation) (Jonsen et al. 2003; Patterson et al. 2008).The points visible on land are the result of errors in the Argos geographic position calculation. They have been deliberately left unchanged to assess the performance of the model, which was able to clean up some positions, but not all.Lesage, V., Gavrilchuk, K., Andrews, R.D., and Sears, R. 2016. Wintering areas, fall movements and foraging sites of blue whales satellite-tracked in the Western North Atlantic. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2016/078. v + 38 p.

PURPOSE:Given the paucity of information on Arctic char along western Hudson Bay, in 2018, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) hosted an Arctic char workshop in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, bringing together local resource users, knowledge holders, and co-management groups (e.g., Hunters and Trappers Organizations, Regional Wildlife Organization) to identify and discuss community-based Arctic char research priorities across the Kivalliq region of Nunavut. Communities were especially interested in examining “what Arctic char were eating” and “why the colour of their muscle is different” along the western Hudson Bay coastline, and in the summer of 2018, a regional community-based Arctic char monitoring program was implemented across the region. DESCRIPTION:Climate-induced alterations to Arctic sea ice dynamics are influencing the availability and distribution of resources, and in turn, the nutrient and energy intake of opportunistic predators across the food web. These temporal changes in local prey communities likely influence the availability of carotenoid-rich prey types, as well as the foraging ecology of opportunistic predators that forage in the marine environment, such as anadromous Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus). Despite its socioeconomic importance across its range, anadromous Arctic char foraging ecology and its influence on muscle pigmentation, particularly in relation to sea ice dynamics, remains understudied. Here, over two years (2021, 2022) with contrasting sea ice dynamics, we investigated the foraging ecology of anadromous Arctic char and its influence on their muscle pigmentation at a southern (Rankin Inlet) and northern (Naujaat) location along western Hudson Bay using a combination of stomach contents, stable isotopes (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N), highly branched isoprenoids, carotenoid spectrophotometry, and a standard muscle colour scale (DSM SalmoFan). Spatiotemporal variation in Arctic char diet occurred, where Rankin Inlet Arctic char generally consumed more fish and phytoplankton-based carbon sources, occupied a higher trophic position, and displayed a similar isotopic niche breadth compared to Arctic char in Naujaat. Invertebrates were higher in carotenoid concentration than fishes, and in association with a more invertebrate-based diet, Arctic char in Naujaat contained higher muscle carotenoid concentrations (e.g., astaxanthin) compared to Rankin Inlet Arctic char in 2021. In 2022, however, muscle carotenoid concentrations in Naujaat and Rankin Inlet Arctic char were more similar, as the diet of Arctic char in both locations was largely fish-based despite muscle colour remaining redder in Naujaat Arctic char. Overall, the observed plastic foraging ecology of Arctic char highlights this species' ability to adjust to inter-annual variability in environmental changes, which then impacts their muscle carotenoid concentration. Such inter-annual variation in Arctic char foraging ecology is anticipated to increase with unpredictable climate-driven environmental changes in the region, which could therefore negatively affect local resource users over the long term, resulting in socioeconomic impacts across the Arctic.Collection/sampling methodology:Arctic char were collected by angling and gillnetting (5.5” mesh, regularly checked) between June and August in the estuarine and marine environments near the communities of Rankin Inlet and Naujaat, Nunavut. In 2021, Naujaat Arctic char were collected by community fishers as part of a community-based sampling program. Concurrently, invertebrate prey types were opportunistically collected in the vicinity of Arctic char sampling sites using a conical zooplankton net (200-μm mesh; 10-minute tows) or obtained fresh from Arctic char stomachs. Additionally, marine fishes were opportunistically collected by angling or obtained fresh from Arctic char stomachs over both years in Rankin Inlet, while samples from the Naujaat area were collected in 2018 and 2019.The Kivalliq Wildlife Board (Rankin Inlet, NU) and Arviq Hunters and Trappers Association (Naujaat, NU) each supported this community-formulated research project and assisted with sample collections throughout the duration of the project. We would like to recognize and thank Sonny Ittinuar (Kivalliq Wildlife Board/Rankin Inlet Local Resource User), Clayton Tartak (Kivalliq Wildlife Board), Vincent L’Herault (ArctiConnexion), and Gail Davoren (University of Manitoba MSc co-supervisor) for their participation in the project. We would also like to thank Sonny Ittinuar, Poisey (Adam) Alogut, John-El, Peter, Quassa, and Goretti Tinashlu, who assisted in field work. USE LIMITATION:To ensure scientific integrity and appropriate use of the data, we would encourage you to contact the data custodian.

Stand structure habitat classes associated with mule deer winter range in the Cariboo Region.

Records of marine mammal sightings (N = 5,324) collected by ASOs and submitted to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) between 1979-2024, across three DFO regions: the Arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Maritimes. Methods for initial data compilation are provided in the associated technical report "Marine mammal records collected by the at-sea observer (ASO) program in Arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Maritimes regions: a summary of challenges and opportunities for future research." Cite this data as: Feyrer, L.J., Colbourne, N., Lawson, J.W., Moors-Murphy, H.B., Ferguson, S. Dataset update to Marine mammal records collected by the At-Sea Observer program in Arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador and Maritimes regions. Published: February 2025. Ocean Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S.