Talk:Beluga

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Contents 1 On the top of this page... 2 Whale? 3 Pictures and naming 4 russian word?

[edit] On the top of this page...

there is a message that says "See this article" with a ghost-link. This is ridiculous! 66.32.76.38 23:04, 7 May 2004 (UTC)

What do you mean by ghost-link? You mean the red link to the Beluga sturgeon? That is simply an article not yet written. If you know anything about that fish go ahead and write something there, and the ghost link will become a real link. andy 23:06, 7 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Whale?

The article calls them whales several times, but the lead 'graph does not. If it's true, it should be in the lead; if not the body should be fixed. --Jerzy(t) 02:16, 2004 May 8 (UTC)

The short answer is yes they are a whale. Longer windedly - a whale is a cetacean that isn't a dolphin or a porpoise. If you check out our dolphin page you will see there are lots of usable definitions of a dolphin. The most natural one is "the family Delphinidae plus the river dolphins." Thus beluga is a whale. In practice however most people don't care to categorize it one way or the other; they just call it a beluga and be done with it. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 11:12, 8 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Pictures and naming

The picture part of the page seriously needs cleanup. Perhaps there should be a link to a beluga pictures gallery. It ought to be fixed. It looks ugly and not very encyclopedic. And the Naming "paragraph" is one sentence. I think someone ought to add etymology. I'll probably do that myself at some point; I know where the name came from. But it needs expanding.--Belugaperson 19:02, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I added to the naming section a little bit, but I think that more information would be helpful. --Horatiohornblower 05:31, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] russian word?

• Beluga - the word derives from the Russian beloye meaning white one. (from Introduction)
• The name Beluga is derived from the Russian word belukha, meaning white (from naming)

I kinow that Russian is a complciated language and thus perhaps these statements are equally valid, however they appear contradictory and confusing. Can a consensus be reached? Perhaps by someone with a verifiable source? --Brideshead 14:29, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

There's no contradiction here. Belukha (alternatively: beluga) is the Russian word for the animal itself (according to the Russian Wikipedia). It derives from the adjective belyy which means "white". I clarified that in the article. Kpalion 14:25, 11 February 2007 (UTC)