company, 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
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==