| North Pacific Whales' Protection Downgraded | 26 April 14 |
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Source: The Globe and Mail
"It would be naive to think there was no connection. Environmental lawyers had already identified that the protections for the humpback whales under the SARA represented a hurdle, and by downgrading the protection of humpback whales they've removed that hurdle," said Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May. Species listed as 'threatened' under SARA have a legal right to protected habitat in order to promote successful population recovery. The high shipping traffic associated with the Enbridge Pipeline, expected to rise from 60 to over 400 ships a day off the BC coast, would violate that level of protection and therefore be an enormous obstacle to the approval of the pipeline. However, species listed as 'special concern' no longer require that habitat protection. "As environmentalists, we asked ourselves: 'how can the government protect the critical habitat of the humpback whale and allow tankers to go through it' and now we know how the answer to that. They're doing it by downgrading the species and dramatically reducing protection," said Gwen Barlee, policy director with Wilderness Committee. Removing that crucial factor from their recovery could have disastrous consequences. As the SARA species description states, "Vessel strikes are the most significant threat to Humpback Whales. In B.C. waters, Humpback Whales are the most commonly reported whale species involved in incidents with vessels. These interactions can cause injuries ranging from scarring to the mortality of individuals." The species' recovery strategy under SARA, unbelievably, does not yet exist. The federal government failed to propose recovery strategies after the species was formally listed as 'threatened', and missed mandatory deadlines by up to six and a half years.
View April 24, 2014 Huffington Post article Sources:
Huffington Post, iPolitics, Species at Risk Public Registry
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