Oil pipeline plans halted over fears for beluga whales

Oil company, TransCanada has brought a halt to construction of a terminal on a major pipeline along the St. Lawrence River in Canada following growing fears for a nearby population of endangered beluga whales.

The belugas in the area were labelled as “threatened” after a formal study ten years ago found the population numbered 10,000. Today, a report by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada puts their number at lower than just 1,000, and so the whales are now considered to be at risk of extinction. The report also said pollution, noise disturbance and industrial development as reasons for the whales’ critical fall in population size.