Canada fails to protect commercially valuable fish, audit reveals
Canada
Published Oct 5, 2022
Tridge summary
The federal government is biased against listing commercially valuable fish as species at risk and needing protection, environment commissioner Jerry DeMarco said in a new audit published Tuesday. The audit of Canada's efforts to protect aquatic species at risk was one of six new environmental reports tabled in the House of Commons. Most of them focused on Canada's efforts to protect biodiversity and keep the estimated 80,000 different species living in its borders from dying off.
Original content
"Our reports today demonstrates Canada's biodiversity is at serious risk," DeMarco said. Under the Species at Risk Act, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada assesses different species and recommends whether they should be added to lists of species that are endangered or threatened. Individual departments then review those assessments and make a recommendation to the environment minister that a specific plant or animal be listed as needing protection under the act. In the review on aquatic species at risk in particular, DeMarco found Fisheries and Oceans Canada was very slow to act when one of those assessments said a particular aquatic creature or plant is in danger. And when that assessment relates to a fish with significant commercial value, the department's default appears to be against listing the fish as needing special protection. "Unfortunately, short-term economic concerns can trump the need for long-term measures to protect the species and we're ...
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