27 Dec 2017: There is a different type of whale watching taking place in Atlantic Canada. Unfortunately, this watch isn’t for the pleasure of tourists, but the survival of the North Atlantic Right Whale as a species. And this whale watch, like others, is impacting the cruise industry.

In a typical year three Right Whales might be found dead. In November the body of the 17th Right Whale known to have died in 2017 washed ashore in Nantucket. The bulk of this year’s mortalities appear to have happened in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Nine carcasses where found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and four off Newfoundland.

Necropsies conducted on six of the Gulf whales concluded that four whales died from acute trauma, which indicates vessel strikes. One whale was confirmed to have died from chronic entanglement in fishing gear and one could not be determined because of advanced decomposition.

Traditionally, the Right Whales winter in the south, then swim up the Eastern Seaboard to summer in the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy. However, in 2017, the Right Whales changed their usual travel patterns and went to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. While the only commercial shipping in the Bay of Fundy is limited to servicing the port of Saint John (NB), the Gulf has a high volume of shipping and marine traffic since it connects central and Eastern Canada to international shipping lanes.

The deaths are so significant because they represent four percent of a population that has been flirting with extinction since the 1930s. As of December there are only 441 Right Whales left.

In August, to help save the whales, Transport Canada instituted a 10-knot speed limit in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for vessels over 20 metres (65 feet) in length. This created a problem for the cruise industry as it tried to maintain posted itineraries.

Initially, nine port calls to Charlottetown and 16 to Gaspe were cancelled by cruise lines. According to René Trépanier, executive director of the Cruise the Saint Lawrence Association, “2017 was one of the best seasons for most of the ports, but Gaspe and Charlottetown. There is a big demand for Canada – New England” as experienced cruisers seek new destinations to explore.

“Something like 35 different ships from 30 cruise lines came here. Some ports experienced 10 and 30 percent growth,” while Gaspe lost 60 percent of its business almost overnight. “They were about to have the best season ever and it turned out to be one of the worst because they had no time to react.”

For 2018 Gaspe has bookings for 50 calls. The question is how will government and industry manage whale conservation in 2018. One option for preserving port calls is shortening their duration, shaving an hour or two off the arrival or departure time.

Matthew Hardy, with the Science Branch of the DFO says, “Regarding 2018, it’s early to speculate, but speed-restrictions remains one of the options in the toolbox which is known to be effective.”

Other tools include possible changes to shipping lanes, increased aerial surveillance and use of remote-controlled acoustic equipment to monitor where whales are now vs a reliance on historical data showing where they were last year. Governments, environmental groups, and the shipping and cruise industries agree on moving to a more dynamic reporting and management system for the good of the species. The bigger stumbling block is how to collect and share the data, which isn’t an insurmountable problem.

While the Right Whale is the headline grabber for the issue of ship-whale strikes, it is a global issue that has taken on a greater sense of urgency because of the possibility of extinction.