Evidence of meeting #36 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was whale.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:20 p.m.
NDP
Lisa Marie Barron NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you, Ms. Elmslie.
You also mentioned the interconnection between protecting the North Atlantic right whales and the shipping processes. I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about what you're seeing around the risks and protections that are happening through our shipping processes and the protection of whales.
October 21st, 2022 / 3:20 p.m.
Campaign Director, Oceana Canada
There are two large threats to whales. Of course there's fishing, and shipping is the other large one. There are quite a few whales that have died due to ship strikes in Canadian waters. There's a lot of work that's been done to understand that if we slow those vessels down to certain speeds, to about 10 knots or less, then it's more likely that the whale would survive a ship strike, if it happens.
In Canada we have shipping lanes, which is a really positive thing, because it means that all of your ships are in the same space. We have requirements that when whales are found in those areas in the shipping lane, you must slow down to 10 knots, and then the rest of the gulf is at 10 knots. There's a little barrier put around where the largest congregation of whales is found, and you're supposed to avoid that area in a vessel or go at eight knots, so there's this refinement of how we're trying to protect whales.
That said, in the areas where it's mandatory, Transport Canada is reporting about a 95% compliance. In the Cabot Strait, where the measure is voluntary, we're only seeing about a 50% compliance rate, so again, when measures are mandatory, they work. We have seen this in the U.S. too. We have a U.S. campaign as well. If something is mandatory, it tends to be followed, but when it is is voluntary, there's not as much compliance, so the mandatory nature of measures if very important.
3:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you for that, Ms. Barron. You'll owe me some time at the next meeting as well.
I want to say a big thank you to Ms. Elmslie and Dr. Fuller for their participation here today and for sharing their knowledge with the committee.
This concludes this portion of our meeting for today. I want to thank everyone who participated. Once again, I thank the interpretation team, the clerks and the analysts for keeping everything sorted out as we proceed through this particular study.
We'll hopefully see everyone safe and sound on Tuesday.
This meeting is adjourned.