Unlike most whales, belugas are totally white, gregarious and maybe 15 feet long. This one appeared to be alone, which is very uncommon, and from external examination at some distance, healthy-looking.
Beluga whales typically restrict themselves to the Arctic and sub-Arctic waters off the coasts of Canada, Greenland, Russia, Scandinavia, and Alaska.The one time in my life I saw beluga whales, the other DrC and I were in Churchill, Manitoba. We had taken the train north from rural Saskatchewan, to Churchill which is on the shores of Hudson Bay. There were a whole pod of belugas just offshore in the Bay, very visible in the icy water.
That trip was an adventure - the train rocked and rolled along at maybe 25 mph on rails laid over permafrost through hundreds of miles of taiga. Taiga is the name for stunted forests of small, sickly conifers growing atop permafrost.
The rail line existed so the prairie provinces could ship grain from the elevators at Churchill to Europe via Hudson Bay. It was down for a couple of years but began shipping grain (and passengers) again less than a year ago.
The entire year's shipping season at Churchill lasts maybe 8 summer weeks, during which Lloyd's will permit ships to transit that far north. It is a much shorter route than down to the Great Lakes and then out the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic.
Taking the train to Churchill is great fun if you like train travel, and it is the only way to go other than flying. There are no roads connecting Churchill to the rest of Canada.
