Question Period Note: North Atlantic Right Whale

• With less than 400 remaining, the Government of Canada continues to take action to protect the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. There were no right whale deaths or entanglements reported in Canadian waters for 2020.
• On November 17-18, 2020, Fisheries and Oceans Canada held the North Atlantic Right Whale Roundtable Meeting with indigenous groups, the fishing industry, provinces, and marine mammal experts.
• The Roundtable and other discussions with harvesters play an important role in the preparation of Canada’s measures to protect right whales and to support sustainable fisheries for 2021 and beyond.
• Our adaptive measures for protecting right whales are world-class, and the Department acknowledges the hard work and cooperation of Canadian harvesters.

Final Action Plan

• The Department is working to finalize and publish the final Action Plan for the North Atlantic Right Whale.
• The Action Plan describes 54 recovery measures that will be implemented by DFO and partners to address all threats to the right whale identified in the 2009 Recovery Strategy, including vessel collisions and fisheries interactions.
• The long development history of this Action Plan reflects the complex challenge of protecting and recovering a species across multiple jurisdictions and in collaboration with many partners.
• Publication of the final Action Plan will support the implementation of recovery initiatives for the right whale, and demonstrates the Government of Canada’s ongoing commitment to protect and recover endangered whales.

• To protect North Atlantic right whales from further harm, in 2017, the Government of Canada put urgent measures in place for these whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 2018 and 2019, Fisheries and Oceans Canada implemented a season-long area closure (referred to as the “static zone”) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for snow crab and lobster fisheries (and all other non-tended fixed-gear fisheries) during the crab and lobster fishing seasons. However, aggregations of whales have been observed outside of the static zones during 2018 and 2019, with aggregations occurring at different times and in different locations in the Gulf of St. Lawrence each year. As such, during the past two years, large portions of the static area proved to have limited value in protecting the whales.
• In 2020, we:
o Introduced a new season-long closure protocol in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Unlike the previous pre-set (static) season-long closure area, season-long closures is applied to areas where whales are detected more than once in 15 days. Impacted areas remain closed until November 15, 2020.
o Expanded the temporary closure area to include the Bay of Fundy, inclusive of the North Atlantic right whale critical habitat area in the Grand Manan Basin.
o Employed acoustic underwater technology (hydrophones) to confirm the presence of whales in accordance to our temporary closure protocol, in addition to visual sightings from aircraft and vessels.
o Imposed new gear marking requirements for all non-tended fixed gear fisheries, including lobster and crab, in Atlantic Canada and Quebec. This allows us to distinguish between Canadian and U.S entanglements and will help us to improve our fisheries management measures.
• In addition, to reduce injuries to whales that can occur during entanglements, we are working with industry to identify specific requirements that will be phased in starting in 2021. Many innovative approaches to addressing these areas of gear modification were discussed during the February 11-12, 2020 Gear Innovation Summit in Halifax. These measures may include:
o A requirement for non-tended fixed gear fisheries to include weak rope or weak breaking points will be mandatory by the end of 2021; and,
o Requirements for maximum rope diameters of 5/8 inches, sinking rope between pots and traps, and reductions in vertical and floating rope, to become mandatory after 2021.
• The Department is also continuing with comprehensive efforts from 2019, such as:
o Maintaining temporary closures in the North Atlantic right whale critical habitat areas (Grand Manan Basin and Roseway Basin);
o Case-by-case measures to address sightings of 3 whale or more aggregations or a mother and calf anywhere in Atlantic Canada and Quebec that is not subject to temporary closure areas and critical habitat.
o Maintaining targeted provisions for waters shallower than 20 fathoms (36.5 metres or 120 feet);
o Maintaining focused surveillance on the water, under water and in the air to detect whales;
o Continuing to monitor vessel locations and movement to ensure compliance with the measures;
o Maintaining measures to minimize the amount of rope in the water and to more effectively track rope and buoys;
o Maintaining mandatory reporting for lost gear and interactions with marine mammals; and,
o Supporting industry trials of innovative fishing technologies, including authorizing the use of rope less fishing gear in some closed areas this year, and other methods to prevent and/or mitigate whale entanglement.
• The Government invested $1.2 million in 2019 as part of a $4.5 million commitment over four years to further enhance the Marine Mammal Response Program, which responds to marine mammals in distress, including disentanglement of North Atlantic right whales. This funding is part of the $167.4 million whales initiative in budget 2018.
• Over the 2020 season, May-November, approximately 2,231 hours of targeted surveillance flights for right whales were flown by DFO assets (does not include Transport Canada surveillance flights)
• As of November 13, 2020, 175 full grids (approximately 36,000 km2) were closed for the season.
• As of November 13, 2020, 36 full grids were temporarily closed (approximately 6,400 km2) within the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Bay of Fundy and Roseway Basin.
o The 2019 static closure area was 10.5 grids (2,205 km2)
o The 2018 static closure area was 28 grids (5,880 km2)
• In October 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a new preliminary estimate of the NARW population: 366 right whales estimated in January 2019, which is significantly lower than previously thought.
• Approximately 128 different whales were sighted in Canadian waters this year, including five new right whale
calves.
• The North Atlantic Right Whale was listed on Schedule 1 of the Species at Risk Act (SARA) as Endangered in 2005. It is predicted the species could become extinct in 30 years if the morality rate is not significantly reduced.
• The 2021 final Action Plan for the North Atlantic Right Whale is being finalized for publication on the Public Registry in spring 2021. The Action Plan addresses all threats identified in the species’ Recovery Strategy, including vessel collisions, entanglement in fishing gear, disturbance from vessel presence, noise, contaminants, habitat degradation, and changes in food supply.
• The Action Plan was prepared by DFO with input from Transport Canada, Natural Resource Canada, and the Department of National Defence, and recovery partners including Indigenous groups, the fishing industry, the petroleum industry, the shipping industry, environmental non-governmental organisations, species experts, and academia.
• The proposed Action Plan was posted on the Species at Risk Public Registry for an extended 90-day public comment period from May 11 to August 9, 2020. A total of 5679 responses were received, the majority of which were from targeted public campaigns (5647), and the remaining from the general public (14), non-governmental organizations (13), researchers (3), Indigenous groups (1), and the province of Nova Scotia (1). Input was related to the content and implementation of the Action Plan which resulted in updates to population information, certain recovery measures, and the inclusion of a recovery measure to amend the Recovery Strategy to acknowledge that the population decline needs to be reversed and that critical habitat would be refined.

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