Five days after the arrival of the first minke whale in Montreal, Fisheries and Oceans Canada finally deployed officers on Friday to patrol the water to ward off boaters who approach the two whales. Some have already come close to hitting stray cetaceans and the hot weather is likely to increase boat traffic on the St. Lawrence.
Although Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has known since Monday that whales are in the area, no officer had been deployed before Friday to prevent a whale from being struck.
Several boats, including watercraft, have therefore been able to pass at full speed several times very close to the two beasts in the past few days. Thursday evening, The duty noted that the second minke whale that arrived in Montreal was nearly struck a few times by boaters sailing in the Le Moyne channel, between Sainte-Hélène and Notre-Dame islands.
However, under the federal government’s “Marine Mammal Regulations”, boaters are not allowed to approach within 100 meters of the two cetaceans, DFO recalled on Friday, in an email sent in response to questions. of duty. Legislation prohibits “disturbing” a marine mammal, which means that a boat must not sail towards an animal, nor block its way. It is also forbidden to swim, feed or interact with a whale.
Patrols
On Friday, an MPO team is therefore patrolling the water to enforce these regulations. “The fishery officers will ensure that the distance of 100 meters is respected. The presence of boats nearby can cause stress or injury to the animal and be risky for the safety of the observers themselves.
“A team of fisheries officers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada will patrol this weekend to ensure that boaters do not approach minke whales,” added the federal department responsible for the protection of cetaceans in Canada.
According to the most recent information available Friday afternoon, the two minke whales are still present in Montreal. The first, a cetacean of about 3.5 meters observed for the first time last Sunday, was still swimming along the shore of Île Sainte-Hélène, in an area not located near the sculpture “Three discs”, by Calder .
As for the second minke whale, which arrived on Wednesday, it was facing the current in the Le Moyne channel. The Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Network captured images of the animal by drone in order to assess its size and physical condition.
No intervention at the moment
At the present time, no action is planned to capture or scare the two minke whales, including the one that has been present in the vicinity of Montreal for at least five days. Nor is there any information to explain their presence more than 450 kilometers from their natural habitat, the estuary and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
However, it should be remembered that calves of this species separate from their mother after barely a few months of breastfeeding. It therefore sometimes happens that juvenile individuals go astray. In 2016, then in 2017, cases of young minke whales found dead in the Lévis region were documented.
There has never been, in the entire history of Montreal, a documented case where two whales were in the region at the same time. In the past, beluga whales have been observed in the vicinity of the metropolis, as well as the famous humpback whale which ventured there for more than a week in 2020. The latter had attracted many curious people with its many spectacular jumps out of water ; she was eventually found dead in the St. Lawrence Seaway, where many merchant ships pass.