In November, the number of species at risk in Canada was raised by seven, following a meeting of COSEWIC, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. The number of Species at Risk in Canada now stands at 387. Among the species re-evaluated, the Killer Whale, Orcinus orca, tops the list.
Formerly in two categories, COSEWIC has divided the animals into four categories based on new genetic information. The southern resident population of Orca is endangered with extinction according to the Committee. Previously Killer Whale populations were listed as threatened, and of special concern.
The Orcinus orca earned its "killer whale" moniker because the transient population eat seals and sea lions. Only transient killer whales eat marine mammals; the resident families are fish-eaters, in particular Chinook salmon, now a rare species itself. The southern resident orcas, like their unfortunate cousins in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, are highly polluted with persistent chlorine-based compounds like PCBs and DDT.
While the list of species continues to grow, Canada's federal Cabinet, and specifically the Economic sub-committee of Cabinet, is pondering whether or not to approve amendments made by the federal Environment Committee to improve the proposed Species at Risk Act. The Economic sub-committee of Cabinet includes Industry, Natural Resources, Finance, as well as the Minister of the Environment. The Minister of the Environment is on record as saying he will likely not make improvements to the bill. The bill is particularly weak because it does not protect the habitat where plants and animals at risk of extinction live.
* Visit http://www.wildcanada.net to use a free action centre to send a strong message asking that the Prime Minister improve, not gut, the Species at Risk Act before it is passed by the House of Commons.
* Wildcanada.net November 2001, January 2002
[From WS February/March 2002]