Navigating Whale Habitat releases its 2022 report

The Marine Mammal Observation Network has released the 2022 results of its Navigating Whale Habitat initiative, an awareness-building platform for responsible navigation that offers useful tools and references to participate in the voluntary collection of marine mammal observations for conservation purposes.

The activity report notes a general drop in sightings of large rorquals (baleen whales such as the blue or humpback) in the St. Lawrence, due to a change in their frequented habitat. The whales had briefer stays during the summer of 2022 than usual, according to the experts. The minke, the beluga (which is an endangered species), and the harbour porpoises were the species most often observed by the crews of participating ship owners.

In 2022, the data collection rate dropped significantly compared to 2021, decreasing by 38.9%. This decrease in sighting data could be explained by the reluctance of some data collectors to switch to the online data entry tool instead of submitting their findings on paper.

Marine mammal sightings in 2022 were mainly reported by Groupe Desgagnés, which generated 40.3% of them. Marine Atlantic, Oceanex, and CSL reported 22.8%, 7.3% and 4.8% of the sightings, respectively. All four ship owners are participants in the Green Marine program.