{"id":610654,"date":"2025-09-16T12:50:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/?p=610654"},"modified":"2025-11-18T15:11:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T20:11:43","slug":"the-beluga-whale-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/animals\/the-beluga-whale-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beluga Whale Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hi! I\u2019m Patrick, a researcher at Dalhousie University, and I study marine life like the beluga whales. You might not think you need a microscope to do what I do (since belugas aren\u2019t exactly tiny!), but I actually study them by looking at one of the tiniest creatures in the Arctic Ocean\u2014phytoplankton! More on exactly how I do that coming up later. But first, let\u2019s talk belugas!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Beluga whales are incredible animals. You might know them as the \u201ccanaries of the sea\u201d because of their amazing sounds\u2014whistles, chirps, squeaks, and clicks! They live in the chilly Arctic and subarctic waters around North America, and are easy to recognize thanks to their white color, round foreheads, and super social personalities. Belugas love to swim together in groups called pods, and they use sound to communicate, navigate, and find food in dark or murky waters.<\/p>\n\n\n

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But did you know that belugas rely on something so small, you need a microscope to see it? That\u2019s right\u2014it\u2019s phytoplankton! These tiny ocean organisms live near the water\u2019s surface and are the base of the Arctic food web. They help feed all the animals, even big ones like belugas. In other words, without healthy phytoplankton, belugas\u2014and lots of other sea creatures\u2014could be in trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s why I head way up to Jones Sound, Nunavut, to study how these microscopic creatures are changing as the Arctic warms. Climate change is causing big changes in the Arctic waters, like sea ice melting earlier in the season and ocean temperatures rising. I want to know how that affects phytoplankton, and what that means for the entire ecosystem\u2014including beluga whales.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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I use powerful microscopes and computers to identify different phytoplankton species and track how they\u2019re shifting over time. It\u2019s a bit like being a detective, but for ocean science! If we understand how the base of the food chain is changing, we can better predict how animals like belugas will be affected\u2014and how we can help protect them.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The teeny Arctic plankton sample on the left becomes a flurry of activity when viewed with the planktoscope microscope!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When you adopt a beluga whale, you\u2019re helping me upgrade the high-tech tools I use to do this work\u2014tools that help me see, study, and understand the ocean\u2019s tiniest superheroes. Your support helps us protect the entire Arctic ecosystem, starting from the bottom up. Thanks for being part of the team\u2014and for helping belugas (and plankton!) thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the Adoptions section in the Earth Rangers App or visit the Earth Rangers Shop to get your Beluga Adoption Kit. Make a difference today!
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Hi! I\u2019m Patrick, a researcher at Dalhousie University, and I study marine life like the beluga whales. You might not think you need a microscope to do what I do (since belugas aren\u2019t exactly tiny!), but I actually study them by looking at one of the tiniest creatures in the Arctic Ocean\u2014phytoplankton! More on exactly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217462,"featured_media":610660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1631,449,931],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-610654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ww-adoptions","8":"category-animals","9":"category-all"},"pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610654"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":611382,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610654\/revisions\/611382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.earthrangers.com\/EN\/CA\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}