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Great Whale River

Field	Value
name	Great Whale River
name_native	{{plainlist
* {{native name	und	Abchigamiche River	paren	omit}}
image	Grande rivière de la baleine 1992 GB1 A.jpg
image_caption	The first step of the GB1 falls of Great Whale River, Summer 1992
map	Great Whale map.png
map_size	250
map_caption	Great Whale River basin in yellow
subdivision_type1	Country
subdivision_name1	Canada
subdivision_type2	Province
subdivision_name2	Quebec
subdivision_type3	Region
subdivision_name3	Nunavik
length	724 km
discharge1_avg	680 m3/s
source1	Lake Saint-Luson
source1_coordinates
source1_elevation	500 m
mouth	Hudson Bay
mouth_location	Kuujjuarapik / Whapmagoostui
mouth_coordinates
mouth_elevation	0 m
basin_size	42700 km2

The Great Whale River () is a river in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. It flows from Lac Saint-Luson through Lac Bienville west to Hudson Bay. While the lower section of the river (after Lac Bienville) has a very powerful current, with many waterfalls (up to 15 m or 20 m in height) and rapids, the upper section consists of a series of lakes interconnected by steep rapids and ledges.

Great Whale River also has a branch originating from Caniapiscau Reservoir. For canoeists, this is the easiest access (a bridge on the Trans-Taiga Road at Lac Montausier ).

Both the northern village of Kuujjuarapik, whose inhabitants are mostly Inuit, 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. 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

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 logbooks of Hudson's Bay Company 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 provincial power utility Hydro-Québec planned to construct three hydroelectric power stations on the Great Whale River as a part of the James Bay Project. Although detailed planning for the project was only begun in 1986, opposition from Crees, Inuit, environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the Friends of the Earth and other activists led the Premier 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

References

[http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/learningresources/facts/rivers.html Atlas of Canada] {{webarchive. link. (2007-04-04)
"Grande rivière de la Baleine". Commission de toponymie du Québec.
[http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/agr/que/jbnq5_e.PDF James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, ch. 8.1.3, pp. 114-115.] {{webarchive. link. (2001-07-22)

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

rivers-of-nord-du-québec tributaries-of-hudson-bay nunavik

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