Doing right by whales
Countries are often assessed on measures they take to help the most vulnerable. A main priority is assisting citizens most in need. But other benchmarks to rate progressive nations include conservation policies to protect the environment – water, soil and air – and its species at risk. If we can’t take effective steps to protect animals and plants in danger, we are failing a mandate entrusted to us by present and future generations. It’s how many countries shall be judged.
So, the federal government deserves credit for taking additional measures this week to protect right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The species is at extreme risk and all signs point towards a collapse, heading towards extinction.
Aerial surveys indicate that no baby right whales were born this past winter and spring in calving grounds off Georgia and Florida. Eighteen whales have died since last June in Canadian and U.S. waters from fishing gear entanglements and collisions with shipping. Today, 83 per cent of the population bears scars from entanglements. For a species with only some 450 animals still alive, the figures are catastrophic.
Other nations, especially the United States, must be challenged to take additional conservation measures. Only by co-operation between countries, fishermen, shipping companies and cruise lines can this majestic mammal be saved.
Canada can reduce harm in the Gulf, where the whale now migrates for the summer and fall to feed, but unless its calving grounds are protected and its migration routes northward are safer from shipping in the very busy lanes off the U.S. eastern seaboard, our measures won’t be enough.
When Canada enacted speed limits in the Gulf last year, the first reaction by at least one cruise company was to cancel stops because it might cost them time and money. It was a disappointing response. These companies have a responsibility to help save this species at risk, and shame on them.
We have accelerated the effects of climate change and right whales are adjusting to survive by moving into the gulf to follow food sources pushed northwards by warming waters. We helped cause the problem and we have to react and change fishing seasons, fishing equipment and shipping traffic to solve this problem.
Canada deserves some criticism. It’s one thing to put speed limits in place, but these conservation measure are effective only through enforcement. To date, charges are certainly inconsistent. The federal government has done nothing to challenge licences to explore for oil and gas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Addressing entanglement and speed issues are effective solutions, but if undersea gas and oil exploration measures in the gulf present other dangers, we are no further ahead.
So, while the changes this week are welcome, Ottawa must take the fight to save the right whale into international waters. Canada can’t save the species by itself, but its actions will play a vital role in this region and send a message for others to take similar pro-active measures.