TELL CANADIAN AND U.S. GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS TO PROTECT NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALES

URGENT: Only around 330 North Atlantic right whales remain. This is a nearly 10 per cent population decrease in the past year.

Since 2017, at least 34 North Atlantic right whales have died – 21 of them in busy Canadian waters. And in early 2021, a critically endangered North Atlantic right whale calf was found dead due to a fatal vessel strike. Entanglements in fishing gear and ship strikes are the leading causes of death.

Without aggressive action now, this could be the first large whale species to go extinct in the Atlantic Ocean in centuries.

Currently, measures to protect right whales must be created annually and can be changed or stopped at any time by the government. But protecting North Atlantic right whales is a long-term challenge that requires a permanent solution. The current approach of treating their protection as an annual emergency needs to change.

Tell the government to take immediate action and put in place permanent measures to protect North Atlantic right whales from extinction. Speak up now, before these iconic whales are gone forever.

Ms.

Janet

Coit

National Marine Fisheries Service

Ms.

Gina

Raimondo

U.S. Department of Commerce

The Honourable

Diane

Lebouthillier

Department of Fisheries and Oceans

Minister

Pablo

Rodriguez

Ministry of Transport

Dear Canadian and U.S. Government Officials,

North Atlantic right whales are one of the most endangered whales in the world, with only around 330 individuals left. Since 2017, a staggering 34 right whales have died in U.S. and Canadian waters. Also since 2017, 16 right whales have been documented with serious injuries from entanglements or vessel strikes—injuries they are likely to die from. In 2021, one calf was tragically found dead off the coast of Florida where it was struck by a vessel, leaving it with propeller wounds, broken ribs and a fractured skull.

Fortunately, we know what the problem is. The two greatest threats to North Atlantic right whales are vessel collisions and entanglements in fishing gear.

The U.S. and Canadian governments must save these whales. Protecting right whales is a long-term challenge that requires long-term solutions if the species is to recover. The current approach of treating it as an annual emergency, for which only annual measures are needed, will not work.

As the heads of the agencies and departments tasked with protecting endangered ocean wildlife and overseeing shipping and fishing, you have a legal and moral responsibility to act swiftly. Both countries already have the tools needed to change the trajectory of these whales from extinction to recovery.

That’s why I am standing with Oceana to call on you to take the following actions as soon as possible to protect North Atlantic right whales:

●	Make the Cabot Strait slowdown mandatory and season-long: set a compliance target similar to what is observed with other similar slowdowns and have it start at the beginning of April, before whales arrive in Canadian waters.
●	Continue to expand the use of a comprehensive array of technologies (including acoustic, satellite and infra-red) to look for right whales and to better understand their movements in the Cabot Strait and other areas in Canada.
●	Transition to a management approach that is permanent in nature, provides certainty around decision-making, is inclusive of all stakeholders, is fully transparent and adaptable to changing whale behaviour.

Please stand up for North Atlantic right whales. Time is running out, and their survival depends on you.

Sincerely,
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