Tag Archives: Cabot Strait
Transport Canada urged to enforce ship speed limits protecting endangered right whales
For the second year in a row, the majority of vessels passing through the Cabot Strait, between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia on Canada’s East Coast, are not complying with a Transport Canada voluntary slowdown request intended to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales in a key migratory passage. The Strait is also the primary route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the country’s second-busiest port in Montreal. The voluntary initiative, established in 2020,,, >click to read< The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released a key report called a Biological Opinion yesterday – >click to read<17:20
Right whale spotted in Canadian waters, DFO imposes 15-day crab fishing closure
The first North Atlantic right whale of the season has been sighted in Canadian waters, triggering an early and localized snow crab fishery closure in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Observers flying in a plane spotted the whale Sunday afternoon northeast of the Magdalen Islands in the Cabot Strait.,, DFO said Monday it has responded. “This sighting has triggered a 15-day fishing closure in crab fishing area 12F,” the department said in a statement. Fishing area 12F is east of the Magdalen Islands. >click to read< 17:44
Ships not complying with right whale protections in Cabot Strait
Oceana Canada has released one week of results from its ongoing study, which is assessing data from vessels travelling inside speed restriction zones. Between May 19 and May 25, 72 per cent of vessels recorded passing through the strait between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia were observed travelling at speeds above the requested 10 knots, with the highest observed at 21.1 knots. The findings will be part of a fuller study to be released in July that will look at the first trial period of the speed restriction. >click to read< 17:55
Asking? The Feds are asking!!! Fed asking ships to slow down in Cabot Strait to protect right whales
Transport Canada is trying a new voluntary speed limit in the Cabot Strait as a part of its plan to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
First announced in February, the voluntary speed limit would see vessels over 13 metres long slow down to 10 knots in a portion of the Cabot Strait between April 28 to June 15 and Oct. 1 to Nov. 15.,, Another measure impacting the Cabot Strait and Gulf of St. Lawrence is the government’s push to get more marine mammal observers on board vessels throughout the region. Sanders said Transport Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans are working closely with shipping companies, cruise lines and ferry operators to get trained observers on board. more >click to read< 07:03
Energy conglomerate spent $14.5M to bury subsea cables as result of unexpected redfish population boom!
It’s a fish story no one saw coming, at least not Halifax-based energy conglomerate Emera. The parent company of Nova Scotia Power disclosed this week to the Utility and Review Board that it spent almost $14,492,000 this summer to bury its Maritime Link cables lying on the floor of the Cabot Strait between Newfoundland and Cape Breton. The cables were protected because an unprecedented explosion in the redfish population in the Gulf of St Lawrence is about to trigger a corresponding boom in bottom trawling in the area. >click to read< 10:09
Fishing industry welcomes move, Emera forced to bury a third of Maritime Link’s submarine cable
Halifax-based energy conglomerate Emera buried 59 kilometres of electrical cables beneath the ocean floor between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland this past summer to protect the Maritime Link from “substantially increased” bottom fishing the company did not see coming. Completed in 2017, the $1.5-billion Maritime Link was built to carry electricity generated from the Muskrat Falls hydro project in Labrador into Nova Scotia and on to New England. The company is responding to an unforeseen explosion in the population of redfish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence,,, >click to read< 10:48
Ferry rescues 3 fishermen from Cabot Strait after fishing boat fire
Three people are safe after being plucked from the waters of the Cabot Strait Monday night by a Newfoundland-bound ferry after their fishing vessel caught fire and later sank. The captain and two crew of the fishing vessel Sulian, which is owned by We’koqma’q First Nation in Cape Breton, had set out to fish red fish, according to We’koqmaq Chief Rod Googoo. At about 10 p.m., the Canadian military’s rescue co-ordination centre contacted the MV Leif Ericson, a Marine Atlantic Ferry en route from North Sydney, N.S., to Port aux Basques, N.L. >click to read<10:52
