Canadian Fisheries Push for Leniency in Whale Protections

Canada should continue a more flexible approach to fishing restrictions created to protect North Atlantic right whales, said crab and lobster harvesters on the country’s East Coast.

Fisheries and Oceans Minister Jonathan Wilkinson met with harvester groups in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Oct. 23 to talk about lessons learned after implementing new rules to prevent net entanglements with the endangered whales this past summer.

Federal officials announced a pilot project from November to June near Grand Manan, New Brunswick, that will feature more lenient rules than those used during the summer season.

“There’s signs of flexibility,” Leonard LeBlanc ...