News Room

Whales make comeback, other marine life in peril

The bowhead whale population in the Eastern Arctic has reached a high enough level that it should no longer be considered a threatened species, says the country's top wildlife conservation watchdog.

The assessment, a rare piece of good news when it comes to nature conservation in Canada, was released yesterday by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, or COSEWIC, an advisory panel for the federal government on species at risk of extinction.

The panel said there are a number of other animals for which the future doesn't appear as hopeful, including the American plaice, a groundfish off Canada's Atlantic Coast whose population is being destroyed through overharvesting, and the northern abalone, a shellfish on the Pacific Coast whose survival is at risk due to poaching.

With its new assessment, COSEWIC has classified about 550 species in Canada as being at varying risks of extinction or having already been wiped out.

The recovery in the bowhead could prompt controversy, because it will likely increase lobbying by Inuit for more hunting of the large marine mammals, a species that was on the cusp of extinction because of commercial whaling from the 1500s to about 1910.

Although the whales, so named for the distinctive curved shape of their large heads, have been protected since the 1930s, only in recent years have numbers recovered to levels that give wildlife biologists hope that they are almost out of danger.

COSEWIC has classified the species as being of "special concern," one of its lowest risk categories, compared with its previous status as threatened.

But there remains some debate over the actual number of the animals. The Department of Fisheries said last year that the population was 14,400. But COSEWIC scientists believe a more accurate estimate is around 6,000, says Jeff Hutchings, a biologist at Dalhousie University and chair of the committee.

Even though numbers have increased, "the population is not yet clearly secure" because it has a very slow growth rate and the species may not be able to adapt to global warming, Dr. Hutchings said, adding that any hunting needs to be monitored for overharvesting.

Aboriginal groups took three bowheads last year, said Gabriel Nirlungayuk, director of wildlife for Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the body that oversees Inuit land claims, who said the amount was well within the ability of the species to sustain. He said Inuit estimates also have bowhead numbers rising to healthy levels.

"The communities would like to take more each year because it's a big region and one or two doesn't necessarily go around to all people," he said of the meat and other products from the whales.

While bowheads are doing better because commercial hunting has ended, the situation is dire for the American plaice, a flatfish that experts fear is in the midst of a cod-like collapse due to massive overharvesting in Canadian waters.

Populations have fallen by more than 90 per cent in some areas of the East Coast. There has been a moratorium since 1994 on fishing the Newfoundland population, but fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the Scotian Shelf continue.

Dr. Hutchings termed the decline "extraordinary" and said, "I'm worried about anything that's declined by more than 90 per cent." He said such major declines threaten to destabilize whole ecosystems by eliminating a key fish species.

COSEWIC termed the plight of the northern abalone "even more dismal" than that of the American plaice. Even with a 20-year moratorium on harvesting, poaching is overwhelming the ability of the species to recover.

The shellfish are being hunted for their tasty meat, which is often sold on the black market. Their status was changed from threatened to the more serious category of endangered, which is reserved for species facing major threats.

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NATURE

1) BOWHEAD WHALES

Bowheads are one of the world's largest animals, growing nearly 20 metres long and weighing more than 60 tonnes. The species was nearly driven to extinction because of commercial hunting, but is staging a remarkable comeback.

2) HORNED GREBE

More than 90 per cent of this waterfowl's North American breeding grounds is in Canadian wetlands. The Magdalen Islands population in Quebec has fewer than 50 breeders and is considered endangered.3) AMERICAN PLAICE

The fish, found off the East Coast, are bottom dwellers that resemble halibut. Biologists are alarmed over their dwindling populations and are worried they're seeing a repeat of the fiasco over the collapse in the cod stock.

4) NORTHERN

LEOPARD FROG

The British Columbia population is found in the Creston Valley and is considered endangered. The Prairie population is of special concern, although the species seems to be doing fine east of Manitoba.

5) NORTHERN ABALONE

This clam is found off the Pacific Coast. Even though harvesting is not allowed, poaching is driving the species to the brink of extinction in Canada.

6) MARITIME RINGLET

This butterfly lives in Canada in only a few saltwater marshes along the coastlines of northern New Brunswick and Gaspé. It's endangered and could be wiped out through habitat losses.