The Government has taken unprecedented measures aimed at preventing further deaths of the endangered North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St Lawrence.

These include early opening and closing of the snow crab fishing season, shipping lane closures and mandatory speed limits, and funding for surveillance and whale response teams. Significantly, fixed area closures as well as dynamic closed areas to fishing and shipping when whales are present were also announced.

A 2017 major mortality event with 15 North Atlantic right whale deaths finally spurred these mandatory changes to fishing and shipping in the Gulf of St Lawrence. With a declining population of only about 450 individuals left and no new calves born this season, researchers in the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium announced at the annual meeting that all breeding females could be dead in about 20 years leaving the population functionally extinct. Deaths from entanglement in fishing gear has been rising since the 1990s, while shipping impact deaths have been declining, and now 83% of the population bears scars from entanglements.

Last week, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) eco-certification of the Gulf of St Lawrence crab fishery was suspended due to the rising number of right whale deaths caused by the fishery. SeaChoice member organization, Ecology Action Centre (EAC), is the only Canadian stakeholder in eco-certification process. The EAC has been working with the Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab fleet to assess their ideas for testing ropeless fishing gear, electronic tagging of traps, and immediate changes to fishing practice, as well as long term action plans.

The Gulf fleet has been proactive, stepping up to find solutions – and the government is concerned about the trade implications if they do not succeed in reducing entanglements and deaths. SeaChoice is applauds the measures announced and is calling for similar investments and changes to be implemented in all the other fleets that pose risk of entanglement along the whale’s migratory path and in their critical habitat in the Bay of Fundy and Roseway Basin.

Read more in the press release issued by SeaChoice partner organization the Ecology Action Centre.