Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and privilege to table a petition on behalf of the residents of Tofino and Ucluelet.
The Pacific coast feeding group of gray whales is an ecologically and culturally significant population of whales that feed in the coastal waters of British Columbia. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada assessed the Pacific coast feeding group as endangered in November 2017. The committee recognized its small population and vulnerability to threats, including oil spills. Nearly nine years has passed since that assessment without the population being listed as endangered under schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act.
Gray whales face growing pressures from changing ocean conditions, reduced food availability, vessel strikes, entanglement, underwater noise and noise pollution. Recent reports of malnourished and gray whales along the Pacific coast have heightened concern about the survival of these animals. Increased marine traffic and industrial activity on the Pacific coast underscores the need for timely, science-based protection of these gray whales and their habitat.
Petitioners are calling on the government to immediately, under the Species at Risk Act, list the Pacific coast feeding group of gray whales under schedule 1 as endangered. This would be consistent with the 2017 COSEWIC assessment. The government should identify and protect habitats essential to the survival and recovery of this population; strengthen measures to reduce preventable threats to these gray whales, including vessel strikes, entanglement, underwater noise, pollution and oil spills; and work in partnership with indigenous nations, scientists and coastal communities to develop and implement effective measures for the long-term recovery of gray whales in Pacific waters.