Talk:Beluga whale

message: I think it would be nice if it was noted early in the text that the word "beluga" comes from the Russian for "great white" (ca. 1580's) as noted in etymonline.com.  Apparently I don't have permission to edit the article. (Mikeyg Rocks)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikeyg rocks (talk • contribs) 04:00, 20 November 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: What do you mean by ghost-link? You mean the red link to the Beluga sturgeon? That is simply an article not yet written. If you know anything about that fish go ahead and write something there, and the ghost link will become a real link. andy 23:06, 7 May 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  On the top of this page... 

message: The article calls them whales several times, but the lead 'graph does not.  If it's true, it should be in the lead; if not the body should be fixed. --Jerzy(t) 02:16, 2004 May 8 (UTC)
:The short answer for they are a whale. Longer windedly - a whale is a cetacean that isn't a dolphin or a porpoise. If you check out our dolphin page you will see there are lots of usable definitions of a dolphin. The most natural one is "the family Delphinidae plus the river dolphins." Thus beluga is a whale. In practice however most people don't care to categorize it one way or the other; they just call it a beluga and be done with it. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 11:12, 8 May 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Whale? 

message: The picture part of the page seriously needs cleanup. Perhaps there should be a link to a beluga pictures gallery. It ought to be fixed. It looks ugly and not very encyclopedic. And the Naming "paragraph" is one sentence. I think someone ought to add etymology. I'll probably do that myself at some point; I know where the name came from. But it needs expanding.--Belugaperson 19:02, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Pictures and naming

message: *Beluga - the word derives from the Russian beloye meaning white one. (from Introduction)
*The name Beluga is derived from the Russian word belukha, meaning white (from naming)
I kinow that Russian is a complciated language and thus perhaps these statements are equally valid, however they appear contradictory and confusing.  Can a consensus be reached?  Perhaps by someone with a verifiable source?  --Brideshead 14:29, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: There's no contradiction here. Belukha (alternatively: beluga) is the Russian word for the animal itself (according to the Russian Wikipedia). It derives from the adjective belyy which means "white". I clarified that in the article. Kpalion 14:25, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

text: Beloye is an adjective, meaning "[ this thing is ] white". Belukha is a noun derived from this adjective, meaning "white creature". 213.87.137.208 (talk) 08:10, 26 April 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: russian word?

message: The Beluga whale is also found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in eastern Canada. It is considered an endangered population. These Beluga whales also wander in the Saguenay fjord. Maybe the map should be updated.
Reference: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/species/species_belugaStLawrence_e.asp
[ 207.134.187.165 18:16, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Gulf of St. Lawrence

message: Belugas are relatively abundant throughout the Sea of Okhotsk.  I added the info in the article, but it should also be reflected in the map.  - Eliezg (talk) 03:07, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: More on distribution

message: according to OED, the first (more prevalent) meaning of Beluga is " 1. A species of fish: ..."
shouldn't "Beluga" redirect to the sturgeon page then?  Or at least Beluga should lead to disambig page, while this page should be renamed "Beluga whale"
Anatoly.bourov (talk) 15:15, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  why does "Beluga" cover the mammal? 

message: I believe that the paragraph marked "citation needed" regarding polar bears and captive belugas is referring to the Frozen Seas episode of The Blue Planet by the BBC. The program shows such a situation. --24.130.63.18 (talk) 04:54, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Polar bears and stranded beluga 

message: The Beluga's conservation staus, per IUCN (see ) is near threatened, not endangered.  Why are some IPs changing the status to endangered? Rlendog (talk) 22:47, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I realize that some subpopulations may be considered endangered but that does not constitute the species being endangered.  The taxobox represents the conservation status of the entire species, which is near threatened.Rlendog (talk) 23:29, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Conservation Status

message: I very much enjoyed reading this article. Marine biology is a subject that I find very fascinating! -- Bill Sapperton  —Preceding undated comment was added on 06:24, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I find this a highly irrellevant comment, thank you for your support, but do not voice your personal opinions on th article, as we try to maintain a neutral point of veiw here on Wikipedia (By the way, this IP is really the now retired Belugaboy, so you know.) 24.15.175.163 (talk) 00:10, 15 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Very Interesting Article! 

message: The section on "Pathogens" contains this sentence:
Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae gram positive/variable bacilli, likely from contaminated fish in the diet, can endanger captive Belugas, causing anorexia, dermal plaques, and lesions.
I don't understand the first few words at all.  The passage apparently refers to Gram staining of bacteria, but that's not explained to the reader.  There's also no explanation of why this feature of the bacilli is of any importance in understanding the Beluga whale.  I'm replacing that passage with a wikilink to Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae.  Elaboration of this point can be made there if it's important. Goodguy2 (talk) 21:23, 7 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Confusing reference to pathogens 

message: the article on baffin bay claims a population of belugas of 120,000 there alone. i am not sufficiently knowledgable to correct it, but one of the articles is clearly wrong, and wp looks foolish in the process.Toyokuni3 (talk) 22:20, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Population discrepancy

message: Why nothing about the Canadian Air Force using them for target practice?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.222.234.83 (talk) 23:06, 13 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Probably because you invented the idea, so it is not true. Only facts referenced by reliable sources should be added to WP. David Spector (talk) 23:05, 18 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: As a Bomb Target

message: Read your history books again, there are no such thing as Eskimo populations anymore.
There are people living in Greenland, but they are not Eskimos.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.162.54.74 (talk) 14:32, 26 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Eskimo hunt 

message: The Captivity section lists the unfused neck as one reason for attractiveness to humans, and cites a ref name of paine, with further specification as: cite journal |doi=10.1139/f69-251 |title=Body Size in White Whales, Delphinapterus leucas |year=1969 |last1=Sergeant |first1=D. E. |last2=Brodie |first2=P. F. |journal=Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada |volume=26 |issue=10 |pages=2561–80
However ref name paine means a Sierra Club book, not Sergeant's article on body size, so I can't tell what the citation intended.
The citation for unfused neck in the Head and Neck section is: Bonner, W.N., title=Whales, isbn=0713708875, pages=17, 23–24, so I put that in the Captivity section Kim9988 (talk) 21:02, 26 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  unfused neck, attractiveness to humans 

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thread_title:  Blacklisted Links Found on [[Beluga whale]] 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: "There had been several vagrant individuals demonstrated seasonal residencies at Volcano Bay, and a unique whale were used to return annually to areas..." I can't make sense of this sentence.   User:Dunkleosteus77 |push to talk  02:54, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Copyediting 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: A student in my class, Amelia Percival, logged into Wikipedia and edited this site on the Beluga Whale with her name in place of the whale's name as a joke.
I don't know her username for Wikipedia.
Doug French (dfrench23) Dfrench23 (talk) 19:31, 15 March 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: This has already been fixed, but thanks for letting us know. Anaxial (talk) 19:57, 15 March 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 15 March 2017 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: On 2017-09-19, an anonymous editor added (and Canterbury Tail deleted) a dozen categories for this article, for Mammals of North America, Greenland, Russia, etc. Canterbury Tail said, "rv good faith, not really suitable categories for a whale. Those categories are for mammals native to those lands, whales are sea creatures and other whales aren't categorized into country or land categories.
I was not the anonymous editor, but I agree with him or her. These are good categories for the beluga article to be in. Belugas live in interior coastal waters, such as the St. Lawrence River, Hudson's Bay and among the islands of Canada, Alaska, Russia, Greenland, etc., as well as deeper oceans. Furthermore non-interior coastal waters over the continental shelf are also part of each continent and country. The :Category:Mammals of North America already includes pilot whales, right whales, harbour porpoises and otters, which also live over the continental shelf. I think readers would go to the category to find mammals of North America, and would be misled to have cetaceans excluded. Certainly the category is incomplete, but that doesn't argue for making it more incomplete. The :Category:Mammals of Greenland has more hope of becoming complete one day, and it already has minke, humpback, narwhal, and seals. What do others think? Kim9988 (talk) 02:03, 20 September 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Fair enough, I'm convinced. Canterbury Tail talk 20:16, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mammal categories Comment 

message: At this writing, there is a sentence which @Lever112 inserted on 29 October 2018, saying: 
*Belugas are targets of Japanese research whaling as well. See Whaling in Japan.
This sentence has no source, the Whaling in Japan article does not mention Belugas (and did not on 29 oct), and I found no source saying it. I will remove the sentence, but if someone finds a source, please put it back in. Numbersinstitute (talk) 23:31, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Japanese research whaling does not target belugas, according to the IWC's catch statistics.  Thanks for removing.  —grolltech(talk) 12:01, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: IWC does not track belugas as far as I know, so the question is still open. Numbersinstitute (talk) 17:18, 18 November 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Japan hunting belugas? 

message: On 12 July 2018‎ @Sam_Sailor added spaces around titles and numbers in the tables, and gave this reason:
* (Citation fixes per CS1; copyediting per the Manual of Style; tidy citations)
I find nothing in the Manual of Style on spaces around numbers, and WP:Manual_of_Style#Section_headings says
* Spaces around the title (e.g. == Title ==) are optional and ignored.
I don't really care about spaces in titles, but I am getting ready to add more Russian data to the hunting table and want to know if there is a reason to add the fairly large amount of space needed to pad every number with spaces. It seems this would slow the loading of the page, which loads pretty slowly anyway, because of its size.Numbersinstitute (talk) 23:31, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: So I added the data without spaces, to save over a thousand characters. Not a lot, but seems no need to pad with spaces. Numbersinstitute (talk) 20:52, 17 November 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Are spaces around numbers needed in tables?

message: The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:
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thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion 

message: A new study published in Nature confirms, by DNA analysis, that the anomalous skull is indeed a first-generation male hybrid of a male beluga and a female narwhal. Should update Taxonomy section?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/science/narwhal-beluga-hybrid-whale.html?action=click&module=Discovery&pgtype=Homepage
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44038-0
Marc Sarrel
108.203.13.6 (talk) 02:00, 25 June 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  DNA Analysis Confirms Anomalous Skull is Beluga/Narwhal Hybrid 

message: The article says
*the dorsal ridge "along with the head, can be used to open holes in ice up to 8 cm (3.1 in) thick.  "
That reference is 177 pages long, and I can't find where it discusses breaking ice by the ridge or the head. The dorsal ridge makes sense, and the head could be used for pushing aside broken ice, but it seems doubtful that a soft melon would be good for breaking ice 8cm thick, since the melon would spread out the force over a large area, unlike the hard dorsal ridge which would concentrate force. Another source agrees that the ridge is used for breaking ice, but does not say that about the head. It says belugas have a
*"tough dorsal ridge (used to break ice), and a rounded structure, called a melon, on the dorsal surface of the head, which is filled with lipids and facilitates echolocation" page 2 of Recovery Strategy for the Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas), St. Lawrence Estuary Population in Canada, 2012
Can someone find a reference for using the head to break ice? Interpreters at marine mammal parks often say so, and it may be true, but we need a reference, or we need to just say it is the ridge used for breaking ice. Numbersinstitute (talk) 17:26, 6 March 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Breaking ice with head? 

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thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion 

message: An anonymous user has been changing the language template for the article (shown at the top of the talk page) from Canadian to American English without consensus and without giving reasons. Canadian spelling of colour has been in this article since August 2003 and the Canadian template has been on the Talk page since August 2016 (there was no template before then). Canada is the English-speaking country with far more Belugas than any other. Futhermore the standards at MOS:TIES and MOS:RETAIN call for keeping the established Canadian spellings. Kim9988 (talk) 06:12, 20 January 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Canadian English 

message: In the side bar the Beluga is described as 'Least Concern' with respect to its endagered species status, while in the introduction (fourth paragraph, ending in "Of all seven extant Canadian beluga populations, those inhabiting eastern Hudson Bay, Ungava Bay, and the St. Lawrence River are listed as endangered.") describes the endangered status of the Beluga (along with that I assume are a number of sub-species). Note that this section appears to contradict the side-bar. Additionally, the side-bar listing comes with what seems to be a reasonable reference, while the contradicting section in the introduction has no citation.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.241.135.194 (talk) 06:16, 28 February 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Endagered Status Citation 

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thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion 

message: I suggest that the annual table showing the number of belugas caught in Canada, Russia, Greenland and Alaska each year, from 2016 back to 1954 be updated to show numbers up until 2020, at least for the Greenlandic catches. The last numbers for Greenland are: 2016: 203; 2017: 196; 2018: 213; 2019: 263; 2020: 189. These numbers can be found here https://nammco.no/topics/catch-database/
Thanks! MartinNAMMCO (talk) 10:09, 30 November 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Beluga catches by location 

message: Why is the conservation status displayed as Least Concern? Is there something I'm missing? Winniemei (talk) 18:20, 20 December 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Conservation status