Ships could soon yield to whales under new ocean protection plan
Posted November 12, 2016 8:11 am.
Last Updated November 12, 2016 8:12 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Part of the federal government’s new $1.5-billion ocean protection plan could see a change in west coast shipping routes.
The plan is to prevent collisions between large vessels and endangered southern resident killer whales in our waters.
North Vancouver MP Jonathan Wilkinson says Ottawa is looking to stop ships from moving through known whale zones and is working on ways to alert vessels if whales are in their path.
“We’ll look at areas where we may restrict ship movement, to ensure that there are specific areas of concern that we may have rules that actually will restrict where ships can actually transit,” says Wilkinson, explaining ships may have to yield to the right of way to whales.
Potential collisions and noise from increased shipping traffic — especially oil tankers — have been cited as threats to whale populations, especially if the federal government approves oil pipeline projects.
University of Victoria ocean scientist Kate Moran says the federal government has reached out about applying the university’s groundbreaking research on the subject.
“There’s a model that has been applied on the East Coast in the US where they shifted a shipping lane so that it would dramatically reduce the potential for impact because of where the whales tended to locate. So, that kind of work can be done too,” she says.
Moran says the university already has a world-leading underwater listening device that monitors animal and vessel traffic in the shipping lanes near the Port of Vancouver.
