EDITOR:
I want to applaud the fishermen in western Prince Edward Island for the way they dealt with this year’s threat to the endangered right whales swimming the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Under the leadership of the Western Gulf Fishermen’s Association, Island fishermen set more traps per line this season. This meant there was a lot less rope in the water for the whales to get tangled up in.
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Then, when the season ended, about 30 Island lobster boats, working with Fisheries and Oceans vessels did a sweep of the area to ensure all traps, buoys and fishing gear had been retrieved so that the whales have a free run of the Gulf waters.
The Island lobster and crab fishermen wisely recognized that, had right whales continued to suffer without them doing anything, then they might have lost markets in the United States, and elsewhere in the world. The fishermen, and their association, are to be commended for the action they took.
Robert Morrissey,
MP Egmont