Beluga Migrations

Beaufort Sea belugas travel over 5000 kilometres in one year! These belugas swim through cracks in spring ice (leads). Beluga whales winter in the Bering Sea and summer in the Beaufort Sea and Mackenzie Estuary. From the Mackenzie Estuary, belugas move to the Amundsen Gulf, and more distant areas such as Viscount Melville Sound to feed.

This animated map traces the migration route of several tagged beluga whales. Biologists use satellites to track the migration patterns of belugas that have been tagged with small tracking devices. The movements are somewhat generalized as the number of tags being traced decreased throughout the year.