Southern Resident Killer Whale Symposium
October 10-12, 2017
Vancouver, British Columbia
What We Heard Report
Table of Contents
SYMPOSIUM OPENING ADDRESS
The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
Key Messages
Minister LeBlanc acknowledged the Coast Salish people, on whose traditional territory the symposium was taking place, and outlined that the objective of the symposium was to create an environment for collaborative dialogue and develop collective responsibility for the SRKW’s protection and recovery.
The agenda allowed all key stakeholders and Indigenous communities to comment on the protection and recovery needs for the SRKW. The Government of Canada is already taking action to enable long-term recovery of the SRKW, including:
- The new $75 million Coastal Restoration Fund that was created with a focus on rehabilitating coastal ecosystems, including $1.2 million to help restore salmon-bearing watersheds in British Columbia.
- The new $50 million Coastal Environmental Baseline Program, which will collect comprehensive data on the current state of marine ecosystems.
- The Wild Salmon Policy, which once implemented, will help address declining food resources for the SRKW.
- Collaborating with global experts to provide scientific advice through a national peer-reviewed Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat process and report (CSAS SAR - 2017/041) on how to reduce shipping-related underwater noise.
- Working on acoustic modelling with JASCO Applied Sciences to see which mitigation scenarios might best reduce shipping noise in the SRKW habitat.
- Providing $7.2 million to Ocean Networks Canada to improve our understanding of the ocean, including the effects of underwater noise on marine mammals.
- Partnering with Dalhousie University on the East Coast to develop and test a Whale Alert System to help reduce whale and ship collisions on all three coasts.
- Funding a Coastal Ocean Research Institute workshop and report in May 2017 on the kinds of noise that most impact the SRKW.
“Individually, each of us has the capacity to effect change in our own small way. However, if we want to see lasting and meaningful change on a grander scale, we need to collectively invest in the health of our oceans and manage our marine ecosystems more thoughtfully. By doing that we can not only reduce the stressors associated with human activities, we can increase the resilience of ocean species like the Southern Resident Killer Whale.”
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