October 7, 2022 — The federal government is challenging charges from U.S. environmentalists that it’s not doing enough to protect critically endangered north Atlantic right whales, claiming measures taken since 2018 have reduced the risk of entanglements in the critical Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab fishery by 82 per cent.
The new statistic was unveiled by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) at a parliamentary committee meeting held after the latest environmental condemnation — a red rating from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch — recommending consumers avoid buying Canadian snow crab and lobster because of the risk posed to right whales from entanglements in fishing rope.
“We disagree with it,” said Adam Burns, an acting assistant deputy minister.
Burns was repeatedly questioned about the red rating on Sept. 27, the first of six meetings planned on right whales by the DFO committee.
“Canada worked to ensure that [Seafood Watch] had the necessary information to make a fair and balanced assessment of Canada’s management regime. Unfortunately, we do not believe that they took all of that into consideration in their findings and did not recognize the differences in Canada’s regime from those in the U.S.,” Burns testified.
DFO is not disputing that north Atlantic right whales are imperilled.