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Northern affairs
Bowhead whales conservation
If you ever see a great 20 metre blue-black shadow glide just beneath the surface of the ocean, off the coast of Baffin Island,
Nunavut, it's probably one of just 250 bowhead whales left in that area. In the 1880s, there were about 11,000 whales in the same
area.
The bowhead whale is Canada's most endangered whale and is one of the longest-lived animal species on the planet. They became endangered because they were over-hunted by whalers up until the last century.
The World Wildlife Fund and the community of Clyde River have spent the last five or six years trying to create a sanctuary for these whales in Isabella Bay, the whales' late summer and fall feeding destination. Trying is the key word.
"The bowhead whale sanctuary is not yet established," says Peter Ewins, the World Wildlife Fund's Director of Arctic
Conservation.
"Depressingly, it's still stuck in the process."
This process has involved coming up with species at risk strategies, conservation strategies and recovery strategies. They are also trying to ban any form of industrial or ship based operations in the Isabella Bay area.
The noise and pollution is extremely detrimental to the lives of bowhead whales.
Ewins says the WWF and Clyde River have also done a number of projects to train Inuit people to collect information and photographic records of the whales. It's an attempt to document how many whales use the site each year.
The World Wildlife Fund published a report in September 2003 detailing the history of the bowhead and the strategies and objectives of the conservation effort. It can be found here
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