Environment : Fewer Whales Point to Big Problem on St. Lawrence : Toxic chemicals from the Great Lakes are impairing the mammals’ ability to reproduce.

The young, one-ton beluga whale broke away from its herd and glided astern of the research boat, basking in the bubbles of the prop wash. Daniel Lefebvre, braced on the observation deck atop the cabin, lowered his clipboard for a moment and laughed.

“Look, beluga Jacuzzi!” he called out to the others on the boat.

It was just the kind of playful, spontaneous, seemingly affectionate behavior that endears the sleek, ivory belugas to researchers and whale watchers alike here, where the St. Lawrence River meets the Saguenay River and widens toward the Atlantic Ocean.

But these belugas are in trouble. They are permeated with toxic chemicals washed down from the Great Lakes. The chemicals appear to have impaired the whales’ ability to reproduce.

Large-scale hunting of St. Lawrence belugas ended in the 1950s, and there are no other known predators of the river whales. But in all the years since, the population has failed to increase, stabilizing at 500 to 700. A small cadre of marine researchers, led by biologists Pierre Beland and Robert Michaud, is trying to pin down the cause.

So far, the most likely explanation is the toxin levels in the whales. In autopsies of nearly 70 beluga carcasses taken from the St. Lawrence in the last 12 years, Beland has recorded elevated levels of mercury, lead, selenium, PCBs, DDT and other chemicals. Lead concentrations in St. Lawrence belugas, for example, are about 10 times higher than those found in belugas that live in the Arctic. Beland has found as many as 700 parts per million of PCBs in St. Lawrence whales, compared to 5 parts per million in Arctic belugas.

Beland and Michaud believe that the chemicals have damaged the belugas’ immune system, slowed reproductive rates and increased infant mortality. But they cannot yet prove this.

“Ask your average person and they’ll say, ‘Yes, if you put toxic chemicals in a whale, it will have an adverse effect on its health,’ ” Beland said. “But science doesn’t operate that way, government doesn’t operate that way. They need proof.”

So the research team, financed on a shoestring and based in this Quebec hamlet, has embarked on a two-stage approach. Beland, assisted by Sylvain DeGuise and the University of Quebec at Montreal veterinary school, continues to perform autopsies on St. Lawrence belugas and compare his findings to what is known of healthy belugas in the Arctic.

Michaud and the staff of whale researchers in Tadoussac are chronicling beluga behavior and social patterns, trying to find out how all the toxins got into the belugas and exploring other potential causes for the stable population.

That takes Michaud, Lefebvre and their volunteer assistants out on the river daily, weather permitting, from May to October.

The Tadoussac area is a rich laboratory for whale research, rivaled by few other places in the world.

The colliding flows of the St. Lawrence and Saguenay rivers--which contain salt water close to the ocean--and the end of an underwater canyon reaching in from the Atlantic combine to make this a profitable feeding ground for seagoing mammals. Blue, fin, humpback and minke whales are regularly spotted, along with the beluga; a sperm whale will occasionally appear.

Whale-watching and tourism are principal summer industries, and the whale watch boats mainly cooperate with the scientists. This year, for example, they agreed to stay away from belugas so they would not influence the whales’ behavior and interrupt the research.

Belugas are among the smallest whales, reaching lengths up to 16 feet and weights of a ton or more. They are pale gray in youth but turn a bright white as they mature. Their life span is about 30 years.

Most belugas live in Arctic regions, where they are subject to subsistence hunting by natives and to predatory polar bears and orcas.

Despite such pressures, the Arctic population--perhaps 100,000 in Canadian, Alaskan, Russian and Greenland waters--is considered stronger than the St. Lawrence colony, declared endangered in 1983. Only recently, scientists determined that the St. Lawrence belugas live year-round in the Tadoussac area and do not migrate out to the Atlantic in winter.

Scientists associated with Michaud are doing research on blue and fin whales, as well, seeking to track their migrations and social structures. But the most promising research is on the belugas.

The team has not yet figured out the main source of the toxins, in part because the belugas have a wide and varied diet. The latest theory is that eels carrying high toxin levels pass on the chemicals when they are eaten by the belugas.

“The interesting thing about belugas is they present an enlarged picture of what’s happening with other species,” Michaud said over a beer at a waterfront tavern after a day on the research boat.

For example, by checking his findings against what is known about the blue whale, Beland has determined that belugas carry more toxins than blues. His theory is that the belugas’ higher metabolism, different diet and longer living period in the St. Lawrence all contribute.

Surveying their findings so far, Michaud noted that “a stable population in this context is bad news, but at least we’re not going down the drain.”

Beland, however, is concerned that an unexpected disease could reduce the whale herd beyond the point of regeneration.

“If something were to happen here, we could lose hundreds of whales in a few weeks, and then there wouldn’t be a number large enough to maintain the population,” he said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is helping to finance the research. Other contributors are the World Wildlife Fund and individual donors through the project’s “Adopt a Beluga” program. Funding, however, is a continual struggle.

“We don’t have a lot of money, but we have a lot of people who work cheap,” Michaud said with a laugh.

Inquisitive and sociable, with turned-up mouths that give them the look of a perpetual smile, belugas have become favorite symbols for Canadian schoolchildren learning about endangered species.

This “poster-child” status helps with fund-raising. But in the 12 years Beland has devoted to whale research, he has concluded that there is something more profound and perhaps unknowable in man’s fascination with whales.

“We want to know, what is their world like?” he said. “For us, the ocean is so cold and dark and mysterious, and whales live there. We hear them breathing, like they’re gasping for air, and we rarely see all of them at once. They’re a mystery.”

Now, Beland is looking to move on to other research. The beluga project can be finished by others, with perhaps his occasional participation.

“After doing so many autopsies, you get sort of depressed, and when you see one of the whales you know on the table, it’s even worse” he said. “Why can’t we (humans) clean up our act?”

The Beluga Whale

Distribution: Northern Russia, North America, Greenland

Habitat: Mainly coastal; estuaries and ice pack

Size: 10-16 feet

Weight: 1,100-3,300 lbs.

Diet: Schooling fish, crustacea, worms

Gestation: 14-15 months

Longevity: 30-40 years

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Comparing Sizes:

Man

Beluga

Narwal

Killer

Beaked

Sperm

Blue

Source: Encyclopedia of Aquatic Life