Join us on Explore.org to watch live beluga footage from the Churchill River Estuary, streaming Monday through Friday for four hours each day
Examine underwater photos of wild beluga whales and help us identify the age, sex, and group size. We also need keen eyes to look for identifying marks to recognize beluga that return to this location year after year.
Learn moreFor General Classification, these photos have never been seen before and we need your help tagging where belugas and jellies appear in each frame. Pod Squad is a brand-new project to help us track group size and spot interesting behaviors. Be sure to review the tutorials for helpful information before you start!
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About Beluga Bits
Researchers at Assiniboine Park Zoo are interested in the social structure and natural history of the beluga that visit the Churchill River in northern Manitoba, Canada. During the summer thousands of beluga whales visit the estuary and at that time www.Explore.org runs a live-streaming underwater video from a zodiac that people around the world can view. During the beluga season (from mid-July until the end of August) we ask viewers to capture snapshots when they see beluga or other interesting species in the estuary. From those photos, we can tell if the animal is male or female. We can tell the approximate age - if it is a calf, a subadult (grey), or an adult (white). Using marks (scars or pigments) we identify individual whales. We also sometimes see other species like jellyfish and jellies that can give us insight into overall ecosystem health. However, thousands of photos are captured each season and we are looking for help classifying them for analysis.
Read up more on Beluga Bits on our new website:
Beluga Bits StoryMap
