Oceans Protection Plan: Implementation of a New Marine Mammal Response Program

The Oceans Protection Plan consists of a series of initiatives, including a new response program for marine mammals in the natural environment. The goal of the program: to train and equip fishery officers so they can respond effectively, safely and rapidly to incidents involving marine mammals.

To respond to this type of event more effectively, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is currently working to develop a national approach and response capability based on international best practices. The Department hopes to respond as effectively as possible to incidents involving marine mammals, such as collisions, entanglements and beachings. This new response capability will also have the advantage of improving the compliance of our actions, law enforcement and fisheries patrol in marine conservation areas.

Fishery officers will receive appropriate training to respond to various situations, and their actions will be governed by standard operating procedures to ensure their safety. For example, they will be able to respond directly at the location of a beaching of a live marine animal, whereas they will play a support role to experts during disentanglement operations for large marine mammals, such as a North Atlantic right whale.

In accordance with its international commitments¹ to safeguard the biodiversity of 10% of our marine and coastal waters by 2020, the Department will deploy heightened patrol efforts in the form of marine and air patrols of current and future marine conservation areas. The Department thus hopes to save more marine animals—while ensuring responders’ safety—and to participate in international efforts to maintain global biodiversity.

¹ Commitments related to the Aichi Targets and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 adopted on October 29, 2010, in Nagoya, Japan

Bernard LeBlanc
Fisheries Management