Achi news desk-
Saint John’s Harbor is one of Canada’s busiest ports between container ships, cruise ships, and other vessels that frequent the area.
Wildlife is also common in the Bay of Fundy, with the sight of seals bobbing their heads up and under the water seen here and there. Sighting a whale, let alone the endangered North Atlantic right whale, seems impossible.
But the Department of Fisheries and Oceans recently received an undated video showing one of the endangered whales swimming in the harbour.
“In this particular video the animal was near the Digby Ferry terminal and only a few meters off shore,” said University of New Brunswick biological sciences professor Kim Davies. “The people taking the video were very surprised that that animal was there and they have a right to be as it was a very unusual event.”
Davies says the whales are making their way north to their summer feeding grounds in the Gulf of St Lawrence as well as the Bay of Fundy. The species is among the most endangered on the planet with around 350 left worldwide.
In her five years living in the greater Saint John area, she has never heard of any whale, let alone a right whale, being seen close to shore within Saint John Harbour.
“They are one of the giant whales in the ocean,” she notes. “Harbour seals and harbor porpoises may come close to shore but to have such a large animal close to shore is quite an unusual occurrence.”
The work almost forced fishermen in the area to bring in all their lines as DFO had issued a fishing ban notice for the area which was due to start at 5 pm late Saturday afternoon. 24 hours before the ban began, DFO sent out a message on their social media platforms saying that the temporary fishing closure had been canceled as DFO “could not confirm that a North Atlantic right whale has been found near St Harbour John, who prompted. the initial publication.”
On the northern shores of the states, fishermen returned to the water on Thursday following the presence of a whale in the area.
Austin Vibert is a former fisherman, and now works for the company Ghost Gear Disappear Inc. He says that his “ropeless” equipment could ensure that the limited season of fishermen is not distributed, while at the same time not posing a risk to the big ones. marine mammals.
“When a right whale enters a zone DFO usually closes the zone for 15 days and requires everyone with a traditional buoy and line in the water to remove their gear until the whale leaves the area, ” said Vibert. “So with this ropeless gear, all the gear is collected into one of these cages and it stays on the bottom until you sail over it and lower an acoustic transducer into the water , hit release, your buoy surfaces, you’re fishing and there’s no danger of stranded whales.”
He says fishermen are more than understanding of the reason behind the closure, but with more right whale sightings happening over the past few years he knows a solution has to be found to ensure the safety of the whales and the success of fishermen.
“No one wants to go out and harm a whale and they all want to go out fishing,” Vibert said. “So the only way to do both is to adapt a new solution or bring traps ashore as some fishermen chose to do and just not bother with it, but there is a partial solution and it’s only going to improve as the guys adjust to and this is going to be a really good test for 18 anglers all using it at the same time.”
In what has already been a difficult year for the dwindling population, Oceana Canada campaign director Kim Elslie says it’s important for anyone on the water to be wary of the large mammals.
“Over the winter we had several calves that had died or were thought to have died,” he noted. “Our season started in Canadian waters with a whale stranded in waters and then there was kind of a carcass, half a whale found off Nova Scotia, so there’s a lot of news going on with right whales right now.”
She says anyone who sees a North Atlantic right whale, whether from shore or in the ocean, to contact DFO.
CTV reached out to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to get more clarity on the situation but did not receive a response.
