Managing Canada's Endangered: An Analysis of Canada's Efforts to Mitigate Shipping Impacts on North Atlantic Right Whales

Abstract

North Atlantic Right Whales are vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts from commercial shipping and fishing practices. After the 2017 NARW season, that left 17 NARWs killed in Canadian and U.S waters, the U.S defined the situation as an “unusual mortality event”. Necropsies confirmed that a large proportion of dead NARWs showed evidence of blunt force trauma, a trauma experienced through lethal vessel to whale encounters. In the past, management measures have been put in place to address ship-strikes and NARWs, however due to an unexpected presence of NARWs in the Gulf of St. Lawrence these management measures have been deemed ineffective. This research project involves the implementation of dynamic ocean management (DOM) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in an attempt to mitigate ship-strikes on NARWs. This graduate project analyses the effectiveness of previous vessel measures, the challenges in implementing DOM and how the Government of Canada can protect NARWs in the years to come.

Keywords: Dynamic ocean management, North Atlantic right whales, commercial shipping, shipping lanes, ship-strike, species management, adaptive management, marine mammal conservation, Government of Canada, policy analysis