(Third in a series of posts about our search for the best location for a seaside sanctuary for captive orcas or beluga whales. This post is about the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.)
This year, Canada passed Bill S-203, the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, which will bring an end to whales and dolphins being held in captivity except for rescue and retirement sanctuaries like those being planned by the Whale Sanctuary Project. A recent count at Canada’s only marine entertainment park, Marineland in Niagara, showed 54 beluga whales languishing in concrete tanks. And with public opinion increasingly opposed to having whales on display for entertainment, there is a growing need for one or more sanctuaries to which they could be retired.
The waters around much of Nova Scotia are beluga whale territory, and the eastern shore of the province has hundreds of bays, coves and inlets that we have investigated as possible locations for a beluga sanctuary.
What has been remarkably helpful in our site search across this region is the number of small communities who have stepped forward not only to offer their help in finding a suitable location, but to engage with us as potential partners in the creation of a beluga sanctuary.
Our Preferred Sites
Three towns in particular – Shelburne, Sheet Harbour and Sherbrooke – stepped forward to offer not just their support but their very active involvement. Shelburne had to drop out because their proposed sites did not have sufficient depth. But community leaders in Sheet Harbour and Sherbrooke are working closely with us to plan how the sites they’ve proposed can be configured to meet the needs both of the whales and of local residents with private or commercial fishing and boating interests.
One thing we need to be very sure of is that the chosen location can handle the effects of strong storms. Most recently, Hurricane Dorian, which swept up the coast of Nova Scotia in early September, gave us a good opportunity to observe the effects of 80-mile-an-hour winds in both locations. Sheet Harbour has several islands off the coast that act as barriers, offering excellent protection from heavy weather and storms. And at Port Hilford, we’re still collecting data that will help us be sure we can mitigate any exposure to potential extreme weather events.
Here’s a brief look at the two locations:
Going In-Depth
Another part of our work in surveying a potential location involves analyzing the water quality and scanning the sea floor conditions with sonar to detect anything that might be hazardous to the whale residents. Our site search coordinator in Nova Scotia, Catherine Kinsman, took some video of one such outing on a day when we had an opportunity to join a Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture team that was conducting side scan sonar imaging and other analyses at a site we were interested in. And while we’re no longer pursuing that location, you can get an idea of what’s involved in this kind of work:
Community and Government Meetings
Around Sheet Harbour, the protection that would be offered to a sanctuary by the outer islands also makes it an attractive waterway for recreational boaters and fishers. So, we are working with local residents to see if locating a sanctuary at this site can meet the needs of all community members.
That was the topic of a town meeting one evening, and in this next clip one of the residents who also owns a recreational boating tour business describes why she supports having a whale sanctuary there even though its location will affect the work of her company:
Meetings like these, which involve the whole community, are a critically important part of selecting a sanctuary location. Here’s how, during a scouting trip, our executive director, Charles Vinick, describes the relationship between the community and the sanctuary, and the value of this kind of partnership:
And here are a few photos from our meetings with local citizens and community leaders:
Our first official meeting in Nova Scotia with Chief Terry Paul of the Membertou community of the Mi'kmaq First Nation. Chief Paul has been consistently helpful in introducing us to other officials of the Mi’kmaq people.
