Eco group seeks marine protection for Churchill area

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This article was published 19/04/2018 (2197 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A national conservation group is calling on Ottawa to give official marine protection to Churchill and a swath of Hudson Bay, arguing that it could bring more jobs and economic viability to the northern Manitoba town.

The report, published Friday by Oceans North, says carving out a National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA) could help mitigate the impact of climate change and industry on beluga whales.

The move comes a year after the federal Liberals hinted at bestowing such a designation, but hadn’t followed up with tangible action.

The change would inform how shipping routes are crafted along the west side of Hudson Bay, bolster Indigenous harvesting rights and block out oil and gas exploration.

The railway to Churchill washed out last May, and its American owner, Omnitrax, has refused to repair the line because it considers the line “not economically viable.” Friday’s report argues a protection status would put more investor confidence in the local tourism industry and bring more people up on the railway.

“The idea of this was to provide a road map, and talk to the town and say these are the possibilities,” said Kristin Westdal, a marine biologist who co-authored the report.

She hopes her report will prod the federal government to move on a pledge it made in the spring 2017 budget to consider some sort conservation status for the area around the Churchill and Nelson rivers.

In a June 2017 letter to the Commons environment committee, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna wrote funding had been put up for “feasibility assessments for NMCAs,” including “southwestern Hudson Bay.”

The government has made progress on sites in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec — but nothing seems to be happening with the Manitoba proposal.

Parks Canada said Friday all efforts aimed at protecting certain areas hinge on the support of provincial and Indigenous governments.

“All proposals would be the subject of Indigenous, stakeholder and public consultations,” spokeswoman Audrey Champagne wrote.

Oceans North’s report also outlines the need for Ottawa to consult locals, especially Indigenous Peoples.

“They really just need to get moving,” Westdal said.

Ottawa has signed on to international targets aimed at formally preserving 10 per cent of marine and coastal areas by 2020. Friday’s report says a stretch of coast from Nunavut to Ontario would fulfill one per cent of the 10 per cent sought, but it notes time is running out.

“They need to get going, and show up in the community and start those consultations, as soon as possible,” Westdal said.

Roughly 55,000 beluga whales concentrate around the area during warmer months, to nurse their young. That accounts for 30 per cent of beluga whales worldwide, which Westdal said are not at risk in the area.

Yet, Westdal said killer whales are increasingly encroaching on Hudson Bay. That’s likely because the amount of ice along the northern islands keeps diminishing, and may have locked out killer whales from swimming south when the climate used to be colder.

She said an official designation would help researchers get funding to study these issues.

“We’ve seen a really drastic change in sea-ice conditions in recent history. Obviously, the Arctic is changing faster than other places.”

Indigenous elders recount tales of seeing killer whales for centuries up north, but almost never in areas such as Churchill until two decades ago. Now they appear multiple times a year, and transmitters show beluga whales often suddenly dispersing, likely due to attacks from killer whales.

The NMCA designation would span the seabed to the surface, and all animals in between, and would prohibit virtually all resource prospecting.

“Waste dumping, mining, and oil and gas exploration and exploitation are prohibited throughout these special areas,” Champagne wrote, though shipments of oil would be fine as long as they followed Transport Canada sustainability rules.

Churchill residents loudly rejected the idea of a pipeline shipping oil out of the town’s port when companies proposed the idea in 2013, but an Alberta politician raised the idea last September.

The idea of NMCA designation has the support of tourist operators, who in the summer bring hundreds out on boats to get up close to the curious animals.

A 2014 study commissioned by Manitoba tour operators who work with beluga whales claimed their industry brought $2.4 million to Manitoba’s annual GDP, making up $1.3 million in wages and salaries.

Westdal worked in Churchill for kayaking and whale-watching businesses before becoming a researcher. She said tourism can proceed in lockstep with ecological preservation, by setting clear guidelines and giving travellers an ethical peace-of-mind.

“I think it all goes hand-in-hand.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

Oceans North report on Churchill-area beluga whales