Canada protects them a little more to the right whale, and the beluga whale

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AFP

Wednesday, 13 December 2017 13:34

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Wednesday, 13 December 2017 13:38

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OTTAWA, on | Two endangered species, the beluga whale and the right whale, also called the right whale, will be protected a little more in Canada, announced Wednesday the minister of Fisheries Dominique LeBlanc.

Since June, twelve whales have died in the gulf of St. Lawrence (is), which is home to nearly a quarter of the 458 last representatives of this cetacean, ” among the most threatened in the world “, had stressed in October the report of the canadian Network for the health of the wildlife.

The canadian government has, therefore, decided Wednesday to delineate areas of “critical habitat protection” of the beluga, also in the gulf of St. Lawrence, right whales or northern bottlenose whales off Nova Scotia (east).

The ministry has also decided to protect fish like the spotted gar, eastern sand darter, sculpin of the Rocky mountains, the following described boundaries saving the lake, or a mollusk, the northern abalone.

The objective is to protect ” the geographical location specific, which are critical for the survival and recovery of the species, as the place where females give birth, where eggs hatch and where individuals feed or raise their young “, according to the ministry of Fisheries.

Canada is “particularly concerned” for the right whale, of which the mortality was higher in 2017 than the average of recent years. Autopsies have shown that cetaceans have mainly died of hemorrhages as a result of collisions likely with ships or others, after having been trapped in fishing equipment.

In emergency to avoid such a mortality rate in the next year, Dominique LeBlanc wants “an update of the designation of critical habitat “because” of the distribution the changing population (of cetaceans) as a result of climate change.”

Last year, the canadian government had already taken measures for the protection of the habitat of the beluga and white sturgeon. A refusal has in this sense been addressed to the group TransCanada to establish an oil terminal on the shores of the St. Lawrence, where female belugas give birth in the spring.