The Great Whale River () is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. It flows from Lac Saint-Luson through Lac Bienville 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 several wa ...

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 large ...

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 A canoe is a lightweight narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British Englis ...

, this is the easiest access (bridge on

Trans-Taiga Road The Trans-Taiga Road (french: Route Transtaïga) is an extremely remote wilderness road in northern Quebec, Canada. It is long to Centrale Brisay and another along the Caniapiscau Reservoir, all of it unpaved. Description The road's northeast ...

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 H ...

, 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 The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

village of

Whapmagoostui Whapmagoostui ( cr, ᐙᐱᒫᑯᔥᑐᐃ/Wâpimâkuštui, "place of the beluga") is the northernmost Cree village in Quebec, Canada, located at the mouth of the Great Whale River (french: Grande Rivière de la Baleine) on the coast of Hudson B ...

are situated at the mouth of the river, near the site of the former RCAF Station Great Whale River. 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 The beluga whale (/bɪˈluːɡə/) (Delphinapterus leucas) is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus Delphinapterus. It is also known as the wh ...

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 trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

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 planned to construct three

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

power stations on the Great Whale River as a part of the

James Bay Project The James Bay Project (french: projet de la Baie-James) refers to the construction of a series of hydroelectric power stations on the La Grande River in northwestern Quebec, Canada by state-owned utility Hydro-Québec, and the diversion of neigh ...

.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 t ...

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 with ...

and other activists led the Premier of Quebec,

Jacques Parizeau Jacques Parizeau (; August 9, 1930June 1, 2015) was a Canadian politician and Québécois economist who was a noted Quebec sovereigntist and the 26th premier of Quebec from September 26, 1994, to January 29, 1996. Early life and career Parize ...

, 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