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Article Excerpt
ABSTRACT. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) consists of the collective knowledge, experience, and values of subsistence communities, while Western science relies on hypothesis testing to obtain information on natural processes. Both approaches provide important ecological information, but few studies have directly compared the two. We compared information on movements and aggregation of beluga whales obtained from TEK interview records (n = 3253) and satellite telemetry records of 30 whales tagged in eastern Hudson Bay, Canada, using geographic information system (GIS) approaches that allowed common formatting of the data sets. Estuarine centres of aggregation in the summer were evident in both data sets. The intensive use of offshore areas seen in the telemetry data, where 76% of the locations were more than 15 km from mainland Quebec, was not evident in the TEK data, where only 17% of the records indicated offshore locations. Morisita's index of similarity indicated that TEK and telemetry data distributions varied with season, with the highest similarity in winter (0.74). Location and movement data from the telemetry study were limited by small sample size and short tag deployment times, while TEK data were biased by spatial coverage and coastal travel habits. Although the two data sets can provide complementary information, both suffer from weaknesses that need to be acknowledged when these data are adapted for use in resource management.
Key words: Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), telemetry, beluga whales, home range, kernel, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Ungava Bay, Labrador Sea, resource management
RESUME. Les connaissances ecologiques traditionnelles (CET) consisten en I'ensemble des connaissances, de l'experience et des valeurs des communautes de subsistance, tandis que la science occidentale s'appuie sur la mise a l'epreuve d'hypotheses dans le but d'obtenir de l'information sur les processus naturels. Bien que ces deux demarches permettent d'obtenir d'importants renseignements sur l'ecologie, peu d'etudes ont etabli une comparaison directe entre ces deux demarches. Nous avons compare des donnees sur les mouvements et le rassemblement des belugas, donnees obtenues a partir de CET prelevees au moyen d'entrevues (n = 3253) ainsi qu'a patir de resultats de telemetrie par satellite sur 30 baleines marquees dans I'est de la baie d'Hudson, au Canada, a l'aide de systemes d'information geographique (SIG) qui ont permis le formatage commun des ensembles de donnees. Pendant l'ete, les centres de rassemblement en estuaire etaient evidents dans les deux ensembles de donnees. L'utilisation intensive des zones au large en ce qui a trait aux donnees de telemetrie, ou 76% des localisations se situaient a plus de 15 km du continent quebecois, n'etait pas evidente dans le cas des donnees des CET, ou seulement 17% des resultats indiquaient des localisations au large. Lindice de similarite de Morisita indiquait que la repartition des donnees obtenues par CET et par telemetrie variait d'une saison a l'autre, la similarite la plus grande ayant ete atteinte l'hiver (0,74). Les donnees de localisation et de mouvement decoulant de I'etude de telemetrie etaient limitees par la petite taille de l'echantillon el les courtes durees de deploiement des etiquettes, tandis que les donnees provenant des CET etaient biaisees par l'espace a couvrir et les habitudes de deplacement sur la cote. Bien que les deux ensembles de donnees puissent fournir de l'information complementaire, tous deux possedent des faiblesses qu'il y a lieu de reconnaitre lorsque ces donnees sont adaptees a des fins de gestion des ressources.
Mots cles: connaissances ecologiques traditionnelles (CET), telemetrie, beluga, territoire, noyau, baie d'Hudson, detroit d'Hudson, baie d'Ungava, mer du Labrador, gestion des ressources
Traduit pour la revue Arctic par Nicole Giguere.
INTRODUCTION
TEK has been defined as the knowledge claims of persons who have a lifetime of observation and experience of a particular environment, and as a result function effectively in that environment, but are untutored in the conventional scientific paradigm (Usher, 2000). As a result of policy developments in Canada, TEK is increasingly being incorporated into environmental assessment and resource management in northern communities (Usher, 2000). Many promote the use of TEK and its integration with science because it reflects the long observational experience and resource use of local people and provides a longer historical record than scientific data in remote areas (Ferguson and Messier, 1997). However, TEK and science differ in the ecological information they provide. These differences in both observational intensity and geographic coverage may lead to different conclusions about the environment and the size of populations and thus influence management decisions. To date, few studies have attempted to compare and contrast these two data sets, or to examine critically the differences in ecological understanding of beluga whales arising from the use of TEK versus Western scientific data.
The beluga whale, Delphinapterus leucas, is a medium-sized, toothed whale widely distributed throughout Arctic waters (Finley et al., 1982; Smith et al., 1985; Hammill et al., 2004). Within the waters surrounding northern Quebec (Nunavik), seasonal aggregations of at least three populations of beluga whales that appear to be genetically identifiable have been defined by their summer distributions (Fig. 1) (de March, 2001, 2003). For management in this area, the most important are the Eastern Hudson Bay (EHB), the Ungava Bay (UB), and the Western Hudson Bay (WHB) populations. Beluga whales of the EHB population summer within the Hudson Bay are, which extends from 54[degrees]40' N to 58[degrees]40' N (Kingsley et al., 2001), and frequent the Little Whale (56[degrees]00 N, 76[degrees]46' W) and Nastapoka estuaries (56[degrees]54' N, 76[degrees]32' W) (Smith, 2004). Beluga whales from UB occur in the Mucalic (58[degrees]16' N, 67[degrees]23' W), the George (58[degrees]46' N, 66[degrees]8' W), and the Whale estuaries (58[degrees]15' N, 67[degrees]36' W) (Fig. 1) (Smith, 2004). The WHB population, which could consist of more than one stock, summers in James Bay and along the Ontario, Manitoba, and Nunavut coasts of Hudson Bay, and overwinters in Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay (Richard et al., 1990). All populations are hunted by the Inuit communities in Nunavik.
Concern over the apparent low numbers of whales in the waters adjoining Nunavik (Smith and Hammill, 1987) led to harvesting limits (quotas, and seasonal and regional closures) that were imposed in 1988 to allow the stocks to recover (Reeves and Mitchell, 1989; Hammill et al., 2004). In spite of harvest restrictions, aerial surveys continue to indicate that beluga whale numbers in eastern Hudson Bay and Ungava Bay are low (Hammill et al., 2004), and the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) has designated the EHB and UB beluga whale populations as "'endangered."
Information on the movements and distribution of whales around Nunavik has been passed to successive generations of Inuit through traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). In contrast to the observational history of TEK, the scientific study of beluga whales has used systematic aerial surveys and satellite telemetry to examine beluga distribution and movement (Kingsley, 2000; Kingsley et al., 2001; Hammill et al., 2004).
Drawing on available data sets from both forms of knowledge, we compare the movements and aggregation patterns of beluga whales obtained from TEK interview records (n = 3253) and from the satellite telemetry records of 30 whales tagged between 1993 and 2003 at three locations in eastern Hudson Bay. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that the two data sets result in significantly different characterizations of beluga whale movement and aggregation patterns in Nunavik.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Study Area
Fourteen Inuit communities are located north of the 55th parallel in Nunavik. Their population in 2001 was 9632 (Table 1), and 90% were of Inuit...
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