{"id":820068,"date":"2026-07-23T04:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T04:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/820068\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T04:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T04:01:12","slug":"conservation-officers-help-seven-beached-beluga-whales-in-manitoba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/820068\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservation officers help seven beached beluga whales in Manitoba"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Karpa reports on how conservation officers rescued seven stranded belugas near Churchill after they were found trapped in shallow water. <\/p>\n

WINNIPEG \u2013 A routine call to a conservation office led to a rare and emotional rescue this week after a pod of beluga whales became stranded in a shallow tidal pool near Churchill, Man.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Churchill\u2019s conservation office received a phone call from a local resident about a mysterious white object in the water covered by seagulls. <\/p>\n

Sgt. Vitalii Skrynnyk instructed Churchill district conservation officer Owen Jones to investigate the sighting along the shores of Hudson Bay. <\/p>\n

\u201cI found a pod of beluga whales stuck in a tidal pool,\u201d Jones said. \u201cBirds were pecking at them, circling them in the air, and it was clear that they had been pecking at the belugas for quite some time, which was evident through the amount of blood that I saw on the back of some of the larger adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven beluga whales were stranded in shallow water along the shores of Hudson Bay due to a low tide. The pod consisted of three adult females, and four young calves. <\/p>\n

\"\"Beluga whales stranded in Hudson Bay A total of seven beluga whales were stranded in shallow water along the shores of Hudson Bay (Manitoba Conservation Officers Association Facebook page) <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were in distress,\u201d he said. \u201cI could hear the young calves crying out, which is a very emotional sound for anyone who\u2019s ever heard a beluga whale calf crying. It\u2019s very similar to that of what you might expect from a human baby, it sounds very similar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones says the whales were around 50 to 60 metres from the coastline when they were discovered. <\/p>\n

Jones and Vitalii Skrynnyk, alongside officers from the RCMP and Parks Canada, stayed with the marine mammals for several hours, and protected them from polar bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlood was present at the scene, and we know that beluga\u2019s are part of the diet for polar bears,\u201d Skrynnyk said. \u201cThey never miss a chance to feed on beluga whales.\u201d <\/p>\n

Skrynnyk checked the whales for injuries and found only minor wounds, caused by the seagulls pecking them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI splashed each animal with water,\u201d Skrynnyk said. \u201cThe females were calm since the first moment until the end, but the kids were distressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Vitalii Skrynnyk checking the whales for injuries Vitalii Skrynnyk checked the whales for any injuries, but found noting major, besides the injuries from the seagulls pecking them (Manitoba Conservation Officers Association Facebook page). <\/p>\n

After a couple hours, the ordeal was over. The tide rose high enough for all seven beluga whales to swim away safely. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very exciting,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThen to finally see them be able to swim and become mobile, it was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Never seen anything like this before\u2019 <\/p>\n

Around 55,000 beluga whales gather in western Hudson Bay during the summer months.<\/p>\n

Emma Ausen, science coordinator at the Churchill Marine Observatory said she has never seen or heard of a situation like this before in central Arctic Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a pretty rare occurrence,\u201d Ausen said. \u201cIt\u2019s very interesting that something like this would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Emma Ausen Emma Ausen says she’s never seen or heard of a situation like this before in central Arctic Canada (Garrett Barry\/CTV News) <\/p>\n

Ausen says there could be a number of reasons why something like this happened. <\/p>\n

\u201cBelugas are known to get closer to the shore to escape predators like killer whales, but it could be that they were potentially on the shore trying to rub up against the bottom for their seasonal molting, and they just got trapped or confused.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added climate change cannot be ruled out in this situation. \u201cIt\u2019s important to be researching what\u2019s happening with the belugas as we move through a changing environment,\u201d Ausen said.<\/p>\n

Both Skrynnyk and Jones haven\u2019t been stationed in Churchill for long, but say this rescue is already one they will never forget.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great that we can help where we can and we always will,\u201d Jones said. \u201cBut at the same time, it\u2019s also important to remember that what was happening is just nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Skrynnyk, the experience will remain one of his most memorable moments in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I know if I\u2019m going to be asked, \u2018Officer, what was your best story during your line of duty?\u2019 and like 100 per cent it\u2019s these whales,\u201d Skrynnyk said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Karpa reports on how conservation officers rescued seven stranded belugas near Churchill after they were found trapped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[712,49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-820068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=820068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}