PAMELA NORTON & LOIS HARWOOD

Beluga savssets have been reported throughout the Arctic, including northern Bering Sea, southern Chukchi Sea, Gulf of Anadyr, Jones Sound, Lancaster Sound, Navy Board Inlet, Grise Fjord, Milne Inlet, southern Hudson Bay, along the west coast of Greenland, and Husky Lakes in the Beaufort area... In recent times and continuing today, hunters and their families from Inuvik, Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk, NT, Canada, travel to traditional whaling camps along the Beaufort Sea coast once the ice has opened up. They stay in these camps for four to six weeks, hunting as weather and beluga availability permit. Most of the harvests in these areas occur during the month of July. Inuvialuit from Paulatuk, Ulukhaktok and Sachs Harbour also hunt beluga when the whales come close to shore near these communities, usually in late July and in August... Beluga enter the Mackenzie Estuary in late June, when the fast ice bridge breaches, allowing them access. They form huge aggregations in the Estuary, often..