The Great Whale River () is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

Nunavik Nunavik (; ; iu, ᓄᓇᕕᒃ) comprises the northern third of the province of Quebec, part of the Nord-du-Québec region and nearly coterminous with Kativik. Covering a land area of north of the 55th parallel, it is the homeland of the I ...

, Quebec, Canada. It flows from Lac Saint-Luson through

Lac Bienville Lake Bienville (french: Lac Bienville; cr, apišikamîš) is a lake in western central Quebec in Canada. The lake was named after Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the younger brother of Sieur d'Iberville. The lake has several outlets, drainin ...

west to Hudson Bay. While lower section of the river (after Lac Bienville) has very powerful current, with many

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

s (up to or in height) and

rapids Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade' ...

, upper section consists of series of

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much lar ...

s interconnected by steep rapids and ledges. Great Whale River also has a branch originating from

Caniapiscau Reservoir The Caniapiscau Reservoir () is a reservoir on the upper Caniapiscau River in the Côte-Nord administrative region of the Canadian province of Quebec. It is the largest body of water in Quebec and the second largest reservoir in Canada. The ...

. For canoeists, this is the easiest access (bridge on Trans-Taiga Road at Lac Montausier ). Both the northern village of

Kuujjuarapik Kuujjuarapik (also spelled Kuujjuaraapik; iu, ᑰᔾᔪᐊᕌᐱᒃ ''little great river'') is the southernmost northern village (Inuit community) at the mouth of the Great Whale River (french: Grande Rivière de la Baleine) on the coast of ...

, whose inhabitants are mostly

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...

, and the Cree village of Whapmagoostui are situated at the mouth of the river, near the site of the former

RCAF Station Great Whale River RCAF Station Great Whale River was located at the mouth of the river with the same name on the shore of Hudson Bay. The town surrounding the former base is now known by its native name of Kuujjuarapik. Originally built in 1955 as a detachment, it ...

. The villages were formerly known collectively as "Great Whale River" and "Poste-de-la-Baleine." The portion between Lake Bienville and the mouth of the Coats River has also been called Abchigamich River, but this name was dropped in 1946 by the Commission de géographie du Québec. Also, the name has often been wrongly translated into French as ''Rivière de la Grande Baleine'' (not until 1962 did the Commission de géographie du Québec officially adopt the current ''Grande rivière de la Baleine'').

History

Establishing at Great Whale River Preliminary Camp 1922

The Great Whale River was a place favored by the Cree and Inuit for hunting beluga long before the arrival of Europeans. Even though both were nomadic, the mouth of the river was often an encampment site and served as unofficial border. The name of the river was recorded in 1744 in the

logbook A logbook (or log book) is a record used to record states, events, or conditions applicable to complex machines or the personnel who operate them. Logbooks are commonly associated with the operation of aircraft, nuclear plants, particle accelera ...

s of

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...

employees Thomas Mitchell and John Longland, while exploring the bay's coast. The entry for July 25 made the first mention of the "Great White Whail River". It may have come from the Cree ''Whapmagoostui'', meaning River of the Whale, and referring to the hunting of white whale or beluga there. In the early 1970s, the state-owned power utility

Hydro-Québec Hydro-Québec is a public utility that manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as the export of power to portions of the Northeast United States. It was established by th ...

planned to construct three hydroelectric power stations on the Great Whale River as a part of the James Bay Project.James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, ch. 8.1.3, pp. 114-115.
Although detailed planning for the project was only begun in 1986, opposition from Crees, Inuit, environmental organizations like

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth ...

and the

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split wi ...

and other activists led the

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

of Quebec, Jacques Parizeau, to announce in November 1994, that the project was suspended indefinitely. However, the project may still be revived in the future.

List of lakes on the upper section

*Lac Saint-Luson *Lac Girauday *Lac Lamberville *Lac Gournay *Lac Prieur *Lac Cognac *Lac Roman *Lac Poncy *Lac Molleville *Lac Chastenay *Lac Turreau *Lac Naudin *Lac Raguideau *Lac Bourgtalon *Lac Bouvante *Lac Novereau *Lac Decoigne *Lac Jacquemont *Lac Delaroche *Lac Sanchagrin *Lac Danneville *Lac Sablons *Lac Maravat *Lac Ducasse *Lac Laurac *Lac Chastenet *Lac Magne *Lac Maurel *Lac Louet *Lac Wasatimis *Lac Bienville *Lac Paimpoint

Gallery

Grande rivière de la baleine 1992 GB2 A.jpg Grande rivière de la baleine 1992 GB2 B.jpg Grande rivière de la baleine 1992.jpg Grande rivière de la baleine crépuscule 1992 A.jpg Grande rivière de la baleine 1992 GB3 B.jpg Grande rivière de la baleine 1992 GB1 A.jpg Grande rivière de la baleine 1992 GB3 C.jpg Seuil sur la Grande rivière de la baleine.jpg Whapmagoostui-Kuujjuarapik-riviere-de-la-baleine.jpg Vue de Whapmagoostui-Kuujjuarapik.jpg

Sources

The Great Whale Project

External links

The Atlas of Canada - Rivers
Environmental/development negotiations; stakeholder analysis.
The Great Whale River Expedition 1991The Great Whale River Expedition 1997

''Acculturation of the Great Whale River Cree'' Manuscript
at Dartmouth College Library {{Authority control Rivers of Nord-du-Québec Tributaries of Hudson Bay Nunavik

History

List of lakes on the upper section

Gallery

See also

Sources

Further reading

External links