When Fisheries minister Dominic
LeBlanc recently took the podium and described the “absolutely majestic sight” of witnessing 15 right whales during an aerial tour of Miscou Island off the northeast tip of New Brunswick, you had to be impressed. He shut down the lucrative snow crab industry early and committed “all the resources necessary” and “every possible measure” to save the world’s 500 right whales. Ten of them were killed this year in Canadian waters due to collisions and fishing gear entanglements.
LeBlanc even cited Canada’s Species At Risk Act. He neglected to mention, however, new import provisions in the United States’ Marine Mammals Protection Act, added in August 2016, which ban the import of fish from fisheries that don’t match American standards for protecting whales and dolphins.
In other words, if Canada’s fish isn’t proven sustainable, it can’t export to the crucial and massive US market.
“The Gulf of St. Lawrence snow crab fishery and the Scotian Shelf snow crab fishery are both currently being assessed for a second five-year Marine Stewarship Council certification period,” says Shannon Arnold, a marine policy expert with the Ecology Action Centre. “Snow crab gear was found on some of the whales. These fisheries are worried about losing their market in the European Union…while everyone is figuring this out.”
The new rules should ultimately impact all our fisheries, but with the hackles raised around right whales, snow crab and gillnet fishing could receive particular scrutiny. They’ve been associated with right whale entanglements. There is a lot of money at stake for Canada, but it likely wasn’t Canada that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had in mind when it initiated these provisions.
“It was southeast Asian countries like China,” says Sean Brilliant, manager of marine programs at the Canadian Wildlife Federation. “But Canada exports a lot of seafood and was required to submit a report in the spring.”
The report needs to show that each of our fisheries demonstrates means of mitigating bycatch—unintentional mortalities for marine mammals. Given that 10 of the recent 13 right whale deaths occurred in our waters, and that these mortalities—along with its own new import provisions—spurred NOAA into launching an international investigation, demonstrating sustainable fisheries will be a tall task for Canada. And there’s big money on the line (pun noted, but unintended). You can see why minister LeBlanc is so impassioned.
Megan Leslie, former Halifax MP and a senior advisor vice president oceans for the World Wildlife Foundation Fund, says that whatever is causing the apparent increase in right whale traffic in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, there is a straightforward problem to be dealt with.
“Whether it’s ship strikes–blunt force trauma was determined by at least one necropsy–or entanglement in fishing gear–one whale was tangled for two weeks before it died–it’s human activity.”
Brilliant welcomes the investigation because there is much we still don’t know. Scientists have a lot of data on right whales in the Bay of Fundy, but the current focus is on the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
“A lot of people are saying now the whales are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence,” he says, “but it’s the scientists who have changed distribution. We haven’t surveyed there before. Till now it’s only been shore-based observation.”
Now there are gliders doing aerial surveys.
So it’s possible that right whales living and dying in the Gulf of St. Lawrence isn’t new, only our awareness of it is.
“On the other hand,” Brilliant says, “the fishermen say they haven’t seen this extent of right whales there before. We also know that right whales left the Bay of Fundy 12 or 15 years ago; this could be part of a regular cycle.”
Regardless of the underlying cause, Brilliant says incomplete knowledge is not a reason for inaction and he hopes the new provisions of the Marine Mammals Protection Act, and NOAA’s investigation into right whale mortalities, prompts preventative action from the Canadian government.
“They’ve done nothing even though it’s been a known problem for 10 years. To be fair, it’s a different government now with a different philosophy, and they took the new [US] regulations seriously.”
The Canadian Wildlife Federation wants key fishing areas, well-studied ones in and around the Bay of Fundy, including Grand Manan Bay and Roseway Bay, “temporarily omitted” during July, August and September, when whale traffic is high.
“This would reduce risk”—of fatal encounters with fishing boats and gear—”by almost a third, which would have a substantial conservation benefit for the whales,” says Brilliant, who points out that our thriving lobster fisheries undergo similar summer and fall closures.
Whatever economic motivations are tangled up (pun intended this time) in Canada’s renewed eagerness to save the whales, we as a nation should embrace it. “It’s entirely likely that right whales will go extinct in our lifetime, on our watch,” Brilliant says. “If Canada lets it happen it’ll be our national shame.”
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This article appears in Sep 7-13, 2017.
Great work.
North Atlantic right whales deserve all testing: https://www.change.org/p/investigate-north-atlantic-right-whale-deaths-without-the-noaa-a-u-s-gov-t-agency
I highly suspect two things are killing these precious mammals:
1) Zika, West Nile, or St. Louis encephalitis (whales have been documented to suffer the latter two). All three viruses share the same phylogenetic clade; Zika with > 97 percent support.
2) About 1/3 of Calanus finmarchicus (Cal fin) has been unnaturally infected via Wolbachia-infected Aedes for ~ 5 years. North Atlantic right whales consume massive quantities of Cal fin as you know. And krill also comprises Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus (both are also Zika vectors).
My reference-based article (with 14 citations): http://www.infobarrel.com/Test_North_Atlantic_Right_Whales_for_WNV_SLEV_ZIKA_and_Wolbachia
And, those truly responsible may be those funding Wolbachia-infected Aedes releases: Bill & Melinda Gates; Wellcome Trust; Australian, Queensland, UK & Brazilian gov’ts; USAID, Tahija and Gillespie Family Foundations. Some pretty deep pockets.
Why would the DFO Minister LeBlanc have more than doubled the snow crab quota – and the problematic fishing gear – in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence for 2017 when he and his scientists would have known that Right Whales were increasingly present there? Was the decision based on scientific advice – in which cased what went wrong with the science? Or was it a decision based not on the relevant science but on other political factors? LeBlanc at the time (April 2017) boasted of “a perfect storm of significant quota increases coupled with extraordinarily high prices.” He may have created a perfect storm, but why was it allowed to unfold as it did?
@Rose Webster Two whales in captivity at Sea World died because of mosquito borne diseases because they were in shallow warm pools with their skin exposed for long periods of time unlike whales in the wild that are almost constantly moving. The continued kidnapping and abuse of Orcas is something you and everyone should be outraged about, not your attention seeking copy paste conspiracy theory style half truths.For anyone interested in what is happening around the world to try to control and eliminate mosquito born viruses like Dengue and Zika and what Wolbachia ACTUALLY IS I recommend eliminatedengue.com
@schmikel,
You DO realize that Eliminate Dengue (Wolbachia-infected Aedes) are funded by Bill & Melinda Gates; Wellcome Trust; Australian, Queensland, UK and Brazilian gov’ts; USAID, Tahija and Gillespie Family Foundations?
Therefore, this is a HUGE conflict of interest and pointing people to this site make zero sense.
North Atlantic right whales spend time in waters known to carry Zika-infected mosquito larvae. Zika is both maternally inherited and sexually transmitted (and North Atlantic right whales are highly promiscuous).
Based on phylogenetics alone, it’s a possibility that needs to be ruled out.
Furthermore, the presence of a virus FACILITATES the invasion of Wolbachia (a reproductive parasite).
I sincerely feel that without testing these whales for Zika, SLEV, WNV, and Wolbachia in somatic tissues (such as the gonads, CNS, brain, heart, optic nerve and retina) that my theory is “still on the table” and should NOT be dismissed so readily (based on assumptions that wild whales “move too fast” to be bitten).
Again, Zika is inherited maternally (so it IS in mosquito larvae – which Cal fin is composed of).
Anyways, I have written directly to the two pathologists involved (in Canada) and one responded with a “thank you” so I trust they will test for all three viruses and the presence of Wolbachia.
NB: We do not know enough about the Zika virus and its reservoirs yet. NO ONE is an expert. But a few of us look at ALL of the data.
According to Okia et al. 1971, almost 1/2 of bulbuls had Zika. Sadly, it seems that only Canadian medical entomologist, Dr. Fiona Hunter, and I are recognizing this fact. Sources: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01248/full
My reference-based article (with 17 citations): http://www.infobarrel.com/Red-Whiskered_Bulbul_Zikas_Ideal_Reservoir_Host
Also, in the U.S. scientific community, there is commonly held belief that Zika is rarely a sexually-transmitted diseases. However, “up to 47 percent of ZIKV cases in Barranquilla, with 95 percent confidence, may have been due to sexual contact alone.” Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755436516300330
North Atlantic right whales are highly promiscuous (so this may be yet another way Zika could be transmitted). Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17971086
And keep in mind that “ZIKV has a high rate of asymptomatic infection, thus the observed cases represent a small fraction of the true number” (World Health, 2016; Fauci and Morens, 2016).
Over 28,000 cases of Zika were reported in Puerto Rico as of Oct. 26th, 2016. The waters surrounding many islands in the Caribbean are obviously teeming with Zika-infected Aedes and Culex mosquitoes, eggs, and larvae. Eventually, Calanus finmarchicus and krill will be nibbling away at them. So, the major food source of North Atlantic right whales will also be exposed to the Zika virus.
“Here, we report the isolation in cell culture of ZIKV from different body parts of wild-caught female mosquitoes (Ae. aegypti, Ae. vexans, Culex quinquefasciatus, Cx. coronator, and Cx. tarsalis) and whole male mosquitoes (Ae. aegypti and Cx. quinquefasciatus) in Mexico. Importantly, the virus was isolated from the salivary glands of all of these mosquitoes.”
“Furthermore, we found ZIKV in a male pool of Ae. aegypti … and a ZIKV-positive male pool of Cx. quinquefasciatus, which suggests vertical transmission and causes further concern.”
Source: http://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/19/151951
Other claims I’ve made supported by science:
“The presence of a virus facilitates the invasion of Wolbachia (Strau and Telschow, 2015). Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4412059
“North Atlantic right whales spotted as far south as the Bahamas and Mexico … Scientists are confident there is at least one other nursery area but have yet to discover it. Where these whales mate is also a mystery.”
Source: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/about/right_whales/north_atlantic_right_whale
Bottom Line: We need to ensure that all testing on these whales is conducted (in a timely fashion) using the most reliable assays and with expert opinions from scientists WITHOUT any conflicts of interest.
My article devoted to saving these whales (with 14 citations): http://www.infobarrel.com/Test_North_Atlantic_Right_Whales_for_WNV_SLEV_ZIKA_and_Wolbachia
My petition (with over 450 supporters) for those who want to get to the bottom of this: https://www.change.org/p/investigate-north-atlantic-right-whale-deaths-without-the-noaa-a-u-s-gov-t-agency
To spite your celebrity status on infobarrel, that highly regarded scientific peer reviewed website your psuedo scientific quasi fact fakery doesn’t pass the spam test on here.
@schmikel
A shill is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with the person or organization.
A shill may also act to discredit opponents or critics of the person or organization in which they have a vested interest through character assassination or other means.
Shilling is illegal in many circumstances and in many jurisdictions because of the potential for fraud and damage.
Note: I will expose all shills and trolls.
There are now hundreds of people in the medical and scientific community that are in support of my work and the work of ethical scientists (like Canada’s world-renowned medical entomologist, Dr. Fiona Hunter).
@Rose Webster You got me! I’m a shill for science fact. Guilty as charged.
@schmikel
Yeah, okay, you could only provide a link to Eliminate Dengue which carries out Wolbachia-infected Aedes releases and is funded by the richest people on the planet.
I’ve never seen a more glaring conflict of interest.
My links include far more than my own work. And InfoBarrel is reference-based (higher standards than mainstream media).
Every single one of my articles has clickable links to the actual studies I’ve cited.
But, I suppose you feel publicly bashing me will suddenly make everyone reading this believe Eliminate Dengue (who is putting trillions of Wolbachia-infected Aedes into the food chain as we speak) is doing nothing wrong.
Yeah, Wolbachia-infected Aedes male releases are not affecting any ecosystems on the planet. Sure.
BTW, Canadians are not that gullible.
@Rose webster The difference between you and me is I have no interest in persuading anyone to believe what I believe. I only encourage people to ignore pseudo science and conspiracy theorists and do the work themselves to root out the facts on issues. You won’t find any websites with me pushing my agendas on anyone. Can you say the same?
@Rose Webster The Irony is that we have the same enemy. The World Bank and all of its subsidiaries. It’s strangle hold on messaging to the masses is its prime goal I have no doubt.
We must be vigilant and educated and enlightened to recognize the trappings of consumerism.
I can’t overstate how much time and money goes into keeping (us) fat and drunk and stoned.