Transcript
North Atlantic Right Whales are an iconic species. It's a species at risk and we have a duty to do everything we can to protect and recover that species.
I'm Michel Charron, and I'm the acting director of whale protection policy at Transport Canada.
I oversee a team that puts forward policies and measures to reduce the impacts of vessel traffic, shipping and other boats on at risk whale populations in Canadian waters.
With changing climate, the distribution of that whale, the North Atlantic right whale in Canadian waters has been changing.
Its main food source is now found in more abundance in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, whereas previously it was found more in the Bay of Fundy and off of Nova Scotia.
North Atlantic Right Whales are large, slow moving whales that spend a lot of time at the surface and so they are at high risk of vessel strike.
Transport Canada has put in place measures every year since 2017 to reduce that risk.
We have kind of a toolbox of protection measures that includes areas of what we call static speed limits or static slowdown zones where from late April into mid-November, all vessels longer than 13 meters must slow to no more than ten knots.
We also have a 4000 square kilometer exclusion zone that we put in place near the Shediac Valley, where right whales gather in the middle of the summer every year in very large numbers. That exclusion zone is closed to all vessels larger than 13 meters while it's in place.
We also have what we call dynamic speed management zones and these are really important because these zones allow vessels to operate at regular safe speeds as long as we don't detect whales.
And this is where the surveillance part is very important.
We use airplanes, we use drones. We use what are called underwater gliders with a hydrophone to listen for whale calls.
These dynamic speed management zones, which are in the shipping lanes more in the northern part of the Gulf, actually have less right whale presence than the southern Gulf.
So by allowing vessels to travel at regular speeds in those shipping lanes, we're actually encouraging vessels to use those lanes and stay away from the whales, ensuring that economic growth that depends on marine transportation can go hand in hand with protection of endangered species.