Following consultation with industry members and experts, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has decided to make the adoption of its lower breaking-strength fishing gear program voluntary as of 2024.
The process of adopting lower breaking-strength gear, which is designed to break under 1,700 pounds of force to reduce the mortality risk to entangled whales, began in 2018 when the United States adopted similar legislation surrounding whale-safe fisheries practices.
“Minister (Bernadette) Jordan, at the time for Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 2020, announced that there would be a requirement for low breaking-strength in Canada as well in the coming years and set a date. That date was pushed back because of various reasons, COVID included.” said Brett Gilchrist, DFO Director of National Programs for Whales.
The renewed date put forward by DFO landed on January 1, 2024. In the meantime, the department conducted numerous engagement sessions with harvesters and other industry members, as well as a $20-million trial to test whale-safe gear. This trial culminated in a symposium from all the participants in these gear trials to dig into what is working and what is not.
“The feedback and the reporting from the $20-million whale-safe gear project from harvesters, Indigenous and non-Indigenous and also whale experts, was that more time is needed to determine and develop data that low breaking-strength gear is going to work,” said Gilchrist.
During consultations, the issue of harvester safety while operating this weaker gear was raised, along with the easily broken gear raising the risk of creating ghost gear.
“The feedback from harvesters and whale experts was that there’s really no evidence that it’s working for whales, yet. There’s are safety issues, and potential that we’re going to lose a lot more gear,” said Gilchrist.
Given these concerns, Gilchrist said DFO’s decision going forward is to allow for further testing of whale-safe gear on a voluntary basis.
He said that some fisheries, like the snow crab fishery, may not choose to test lower-breaking strength gear due to the tensile strength needed for their lines. Others, like the lobster fishery, may be much better suited to continuing to test the applications of this gear.
Given the cost that fisheries would have to sink into adopting new lower breaking-strength gear, Gilchrist said the department wants to be sure that the gear works as intended for both whales and a variety of fisheries before the idea of mandatory adoption is raised to the industry again.
“Lower breaking-strength fishing gear or rope-on-demand fishing gear; they’re all about changing the gear. So, if you’re investing in one, but then three years down the line someone says it’s not working and you need to shift to the other one, that’s a massive cost to the industry,” said Gilchrist.
Going forward, DFO has elected to not give further timelines on adopting whale-safe gear across Eastern Canada until there is more data on how to best implement its use.
“I think we want to move away from throwing out a timeline because of the feedback we received from partners and stakeholders, so there’s no set timeline,” said Gilchrist. “If more data is developed that it is working for whales and working for fish harvesters in different fisheries, then DFO has demonstrated repeatedly that it implements new ideas and innovation when they demonstrate progress.”
