Ottawa must act to reduce ship speed in Cabot Strait and protect right whales: report

Oceana Canada says there are only about 330 North Atlantic right whales left in existence

CITYnews halifax \ Canadian Press

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HALIFAX — During the past two years, most ships travelling through a key migratory route for endangered North Atlantic right whales have not adhered to voluntary speed restrictions imposed by Transport Canada, data from an ocean conservation group shows.

In its latest report released Tuesday, Oceana Canada says the federal government must make speed limits in the waters of the Cabot Strait, located between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, mandatory and season long.

Transport Canada implemented voluntary speed limits in the Cabot Strait, asking ships to slow down to 10 knots during four time periods between April 2020 and November 2021.

Oceana Canada tracked 3,031 ship transits through the strait during those periods using satellite data. Some ships may have made multiple transits during that time. The group says 68 per cent of the transits involved ships travelling at speeds above 10 knots and 43 per cent at speeds exceeding 12 knots.

“The rate of non-compliance over the past two years was way too high for this trial voluntary measure to be considered a success in terms of protecting right whales,” Oceana’s report said.

The group says the government should impose mandatory speed limits at the beginning of April, before the whales travel to that part of the Atlantic.

There are 330 North Atlantic right whales left in existence, according to Oceana. Climate change is pushing the zooplankton on which the whales feed into cooler waters off Canada’s eastern coasts and attracting the whales north. Ship strikes in the North Atlantic are threatening the whales’ population, Oceana says, adding that since 2017, 21 whales have died in Canadian waters and at least eight of those deaths are a result of collisions with ships.

Kim Elmslie, Oceana’s campaign director, said in an interview Monday that slower speeds increase the chances of whales surviving impacts with ships. In parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence where speed limits are mandatory, the lethality of ship strikes is reduced by 86 per cent, she added.

“What we’re seeing is that the compliance is not compatible with what they have in their mandatory areas,” Elmslie said.

The whales have difficulty avoiding quickly moving ships, she said, adding that the animals are not easy to spot in the water.

“They’re dark; they don’t have a dorsal fin like killer whales, so they’re very hard to see,” Elmslie said. “So, it makes them susceptible to ship strikes. They don’t have this instinct to get out of the way of a big vessel.”

Transport Canada says voluntary compliance of speed limits in the Cabot Strait increased to 52.4 per cent in 2021 from 37.9 per cent in 2020.

In an emailed statement Monday, Transport Canada senior communications advisor Sau Sau Liu said the Cabot Strait is a “challenging navigational corridor,” adding that multiple factors, like harsh weather conditions, can make it difficult for vessels to slow down to 10 knots or less.

“Participating in these measures during these circumstances may pose a safety hazard to both the vessels and the crews,” Liu said. “Additional pressures to maintain vessel transit schedules during the pandemic to ensure the flow of goods and services have also been noted as impacting participation rates.”

Liu said the federal agency would try to increase the level of compliance with voluntary speed reductions in the region, including by working with industry to better understand why some vessels did not participate in the slowdown periods.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2022.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Danielle Edwards, The Canadian Press