Ocean Observatory Testing Leads to Unlikely Friendship with Solitary Social Beluga
SubC Imaging is located in Clarenville, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada -- the ideal testing ground for subsea equipment. Minutes away from our office is the local Marina, where we have deployed an Observatory Camera System that is used for testing and live product demonstrations.
Our sales team was using the marina observatory system earlier this summer when they noticed that the camera was pointing at the seafloor, which was unusual. A few members of our mechatronics team went to check it out and found a small beluga whale was playing with our camera system.
Making Adjustments
Throughout the summer, our team tried multiple system designs and setups to try and keep the whale from destroying our equipment. We made a heavier metal frame, added extra weights, and created a pendulum system, but nothing seemed to work. At one point, the team tried pulling the system up out of the water, but of course the beluga was nearby and was not happy and tried to pull the frame back down to the seafloor! Ultimately, the team had to walk away and let the whale play with the system while they worked on another solution.
Finally, our team swapped the system’s green support rope for a black rope thinking that the whale might be attracted to the green rope. They also connected the camera cable and rope in smaller segments which left little-to-no room for the beluga to stick his head in the system frame and spin it around. So far, this setup has survived since July.
The beluga wasn’t seen by any of our team members for a few months until this fall. On November 12, our Channel Manager, Pierre Almeida, logged in to the marina camera to do a camera demonstration and caught a glimpse of the whale playing around with the system once again.
Why is this Whale so Close to the Shore?
This beluga, nicknamed “Bluey” by local media, is a solitary social beluga, meaning he is a juvenile male who became separated from his pod. Contact with humans can become very important to these solitary whales, because it substitutes for contact with other belugas. And this particular beluga certainly enjoyed interacting with everyone he saw.
A Sad Ending
Above: This image of Bluey was taken with the Observatory Camera System.
Unfortunately, this is probably the last footage captured of this particular beluga whale. On November 20, the whale was spotted floating lifeless after becoming entangled in an old mooring cable. It’s an ending that many saw coming as this beluga has spent the past few years close to shore, swimming around boats and fishing gear in our local harbour. What’s more, this was not the first time that the beluga had been entangled. The volunteer group Tangly Whales was called to his rescue multiple times.
Everyone in our community is saddened by the loss of this beluga whale. He was a local attraction that everyone enjoyed seeing. Precautions were taken to help keep this whale safe by boaters and fisherpersons, but sadly it wasn’t enough. The big question now is what more can we do in the future to protect solitary social belugas?