Right whale: coexist for the survival of a species

Lyne Morissette is an eternal optimist. The biologist is also realistic. If nothing is done, if nothing changes, the North Atlantic right whale will be an extinct species. It will disappear from this planet. If the trend continues, there will not be a single specimen in 20 years.

With the death rate and the birth rate, if we extrapolate, we have 20 years left Morissette insists.

At the beginning of the year, the scientific community estimated that the North Atlantic right whale population was 411 individuals. Eight have died since. Nearly 2% of individuals of this species have been cleared from the planet. Three of them were hit by a ship.

Teams are trying to free three other individuals entangled in ropes of fishing gear. Fishermen are thus singled out as one of the main threats to the survival of the right whale.

It must be said that the North Atlantic right whale is an endangered species. Fisheries and Oceans Canada has therefore tightened its measures to protect it. Snow crab fishing areas have been closed and some types of vessels have to reduce their speed, for example.

We are afraid to relive the hecatomb of 2017

In 2017, 12 right whales perished in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Since then, fishermen have been under pressure.

There are fishermen who have not taken all their quota, with the vise tightening. There is not much left to fish for fishermensays the captain of Marie Caro, a Shippagan crab-fisher.

Jason Hébert has been fishing mainly snow crab for nine years. But since the Atlantic right whale is more present in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the captain of Hebert Boy's fears losing his livelihood.

Like all fishermen in the area, our biggest fear is that fishing seasons will close. We all depend on that! This is our jobsays the fisherman whose wharf is in Petit-Shippagan, on the Acadian Peninsula.

The fishing industry is not only important for fishermen. The sector is also paying big dividends to rural communities. The value of snow crab landings in 2017 is estimated at $ 209 million and landings of lobster at $ 286 million.

Biologists, engineers and fishermen are working together to find solutions for the fishing industry and whales to coexist.

I will not give up. As long as he stays a whale in the gulf or in the North Atlantic, he will always remain a chance that we can make a differencesays Morissette, the biologist.

From the Bay of Fundy to the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Right whales in the North Atlantic have been more numerous in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for about three years. Five percent of the population of this species died in these waters. Seeing the mammal was previously more anecdotal. Climate change, however, would have pushed these giants of the sea to venture there.

Last winter, they were off Florida to swim to the Bay of Fundy. About 60% of the right whale population was there. Biologists did not know where the other 40% of the population was going until they started seeing them in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

At first, we thought maybe he was there, the 40% we did not see. But that's more than 40%, almost half of the population that bypasses the Bay of Fundy to come to the gulf insteadexplains Morissette.

One thing helps to understand this new behavior of the species: climate change. They force the marine fauna to change their habits. And the whale follows his stomach.

It is clear that whales probably come here because we are in a climate change context. All species distribution is migrating north. (…) To follow the food, they find themselves in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, she says.

Fishermen have learned to share the waterways of the Bay of Fundy with whales for years. In the Gulf, sailors and whales have not yet learned to live together.

In the Bay of Fundy, where they have been for decades, it has been a long time since we learned to coexist, to put in place measures to protect the whale and to continue our human activities as safely as possible. Here, we were not ready for that. We did not have black whales before and all of a sudden we hadsays the biologist.

Navigate the current of research

The majority of crabbers have finished their fishing season. At Shippagan, ropes and buoys are stacked on decks. But for Marie Caro, the season is not over yet.

Captain Stéphane Ferron's boat is one of the crabbers testing new technologies and new ways of fishing. The boat has been equipped with an electronic logbook associated with buoy-mounted sensors, which allow real-time monitoring of fishermen's traps as well as the entangled whale dragging fishing gear.

In a case of entanglement, it is the smart buoy that comes into play. There is a whole system built into it. It will send a signal to the fishermen on their cellularexplains Philippe Cormier.

The engineer is president of Corbo, a consulting firm that has been mandated to develop several prototype fishing gear. The federal government has injected $ 3.4 million over 3 years into the project.

Ten midshore crabbers such as Marie Caro and Harry Frye have been designated to test new fishing gear. The goal is that there are less ropes in the water, but the environmentalists, they would like them to disappear completely, to avoid further entanglements.

The ultimate idea is to no longer have a cable in the water column, the vertical column in which the right whale is at higher risksaid Mr. Cormier.

It must be said that currently the Gulf of St. Lawrence is a labyrinth for the right whale. There are 37,000 suspended ropes in these waters only for snow crab fishing. These ropes, end to end, are the distance between Halifax and Vancouver, 200 km away.

A locker system called "rope on demand" is under development, but it is not yet developed. Tested in the pool, the concept works well. The cable rests at the bottom of the water packed in a bag. He is still attached to the locker and a buoy. When a signal is sent to the system, the bag opens, releasing the rope that rises to the surface pulled by the buoy. In principle, this allows the fisherman to locate his trap and recover his catches.

At sea, however, the experience does not go as expected and fears materialize. The computer does not communicate with the system that has to release the rope. It takes 30 minutes for it to work. It's an eternity when you have to haul 150 bins.

The Corbo team is on its eighth prototype in a year and a half.

When we were approached, there was really a sense of urgency. The fishermen were afraid of losing their fishing, their livelihood. There was a sense of finding solutions as quickly as possible. There are no miracle solutions, otherwise we would have already adopted

Corbo engineers work on 12 prototypes and the company has already invested more than 20,000 hours in their development.

For the moment we are far from an applicable solution, it is technological innovations that cost a fortune. Yet this is one of the areas of research that is the most promising, if it can work. The fishermen will not have 45 minutes to lose to find their lockers. The solutions we deploy must be effective both in terms of operations and to protect whales. It's a beautiful utopia that it works for nowreminds Lyne Morissette.

What's important to the biologist is that the fishing industry, researchers and innovators are all working together so that humans can coexist with a species at risk. It is not a question of finding culprits, but of finding solutions.

It was a mistake to point fingers at fishermen (…) instead of working with them and with their knowledge. They have been hampered and lost knowledge for better management measures. Acceptability is easier if fishermen are part of the decisionconcludes Ms. Morissette.

And the fishermen are now on board. They participate in the research project and recognize that they have some responsibility. In fact, Homarus, an organization funded by the Maritime Fishermen's Union, is also involved in the project.

Obviously, that's part of the problem, so it's just logical that we're part of the solution. We have to find a way to coexist with whales, whatever the species. The majority of fishermen are open to doing their part, says the captain of Marie Caro, Stéphane Ferron.

---

team:

Journalist and photos: Nicolas Steinbach
Edim and writing: Patrick Lacelle
Advisor for digital content: Émilie Larivée-Tourangeau
Infographic: Kristel Mallet