Data from beluga contaminants project (English, French, ZIP)

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2026-04-22

The St. Lawrence Estuary beluga population, designated as endangered, is declining and has shown no signs of recovery despite several conservation measures. Its exposure to organohalogen contaminants has been proposed as a possible limiting factor in its recovery. This dataset was built in order to investigate the temporal trends in the concentrations of contaminants in the population. Sampling consisted of collecting blubber samples from 128 beluga carcasses (63 females, 64 males, and 1 intersex) found stranded in the St. Lawrence Estuary between 1987 and 2009 and deemed sufficiently fresh (Geraci-Lounsbury Scale ≤4) to undergo laboratory necropsy. Samples were taken from the entire layer of blubber between the skin and muscle, except where indicated otherwise. The necropsy included the following procedures: determination of the cause of death, morphometric measurements, age assessment, and body condition evaluation. The concentrations of polybrominated flame retardants (BDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and organochlorine pesticides were measured on the lipid fraction after lipid extraction. The methods are described in further detail in Lebeuf et al. (2004, 2007). This…

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