Winter Observations on Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) in Jones Sound N.W.T.

On NovemBer 25, 1966, two hunters searching for seal breathing holes in the sea ice near the mouth of Starnes Fiord, S. Ellesmere Island, N.W.T., found an area of open water where a large number of beluga (Delphinapterus leucas Pallas) were apparently trapped.* Abo: 600 yards distant they discovered a second similar opening in the sea ice, and within two weeks of this a third was discovered equidistant from the others.This was the first wintering of whales witnessed by any of the residents of Grise Fiord, a small community of eighty Eskimos who formerly had lived at various locations in eastern Hudson Bay, northern and eastern Baffin Island, Foxe Basin and Smith Sound.