A voluntary conservation agreement reduces the risks of lethal collisions between ships and whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary (Québec, Canada): From co-construction to monitoring compliance and assessing effectiveness.
Lethal collisions with ships are limiting the recovery of several at-risk whale species worldwide. In the St. Lawrence Estuary (Quebec, Canada), the endangered blue whale and of special concern fin whale are among the migratory species subject to collisions with large ships. In 2011, a working group...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:31a9a946e654467787f7f5eedc9a7bc6 2023-05-15T15:45:15+02:00 A voluntary conservation agreement reduces the risks of lethal collisions between ships and whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary (Québec, Canada): From co-construction to monitoring compliance and assessing effectiveness. Clément Chion Samuel Turgeon Guy Cantin Robert Michaud Nadia Ménard Véronique Lesage Lael Parrott Pierre Beaufils Yves Clermont Caroline Gravel 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202560 https://doaj.org/article/31a9a946e654467787f7f5eedc9a7bc6 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6150506?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0202560 https://doaj.org/article/31a9a946e654467787f7f5eedc9a7bc6 PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 9, p e0202560 (2018) Medicine R Science Q article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202560 2022-12-31T16:03:47Z Lethal collisions with ships are limiting the recovery of several at-risk whale species worldwide. In the St. Lawrence Estuary (Quebec, Canada), the endangered blue whale and of special concern fin whale are among the migratory species subject to collisions with large ships. In 2011, a working group composed of representatives from the maritime industry, the government, non-governmental organizations, and academia was created to explore solutions to mitigate ship-whale collisions in the St. Lawrence Estuary. Adopting an adaptive risk management framework, the working group took advantage of the best available scientific data and tools to co-construct realistic collision mitigation options and evaluate their likely benefits for whale conservation and costs for the industry. In 2013, the working group recommended the implementation of voluntary measures to mitigate collision risks, consisting of a slow-down area, a no-go area, and a caution area; a recommended route was added in 2014. Along with the voluntary framework, the working group agreed to continuously monitor compliance with and assess effectiveness of these mitigation measures. After the fourth year of implementation, voluntary measures showed encouraging results, with a reduction of up to 40% of lethal collision risks with fin whales in the highest density area. This reduction in risk is mainly related to ship speed reduction in the slow-down area from 14.1 ± 2.6 knots in 2012 to 11.3 ± 1.7 knots since 2014. The presence of a mandatory pilotage area overlapping with the slow-down area was instrumental to facilitate communication about the mitigation measures, with the pilotage corporation sitting as a regular member of the working group. This resulted in significantly slower speeds in the slow-down area for ships with a pilot from the pilotage corporation onboard compared to those without (-0.8 knots, p-value < 0.001). It is also likely to explain the weaker compliance of the maritime industry with the no-go area located outside of the mandatory ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Blue whale Fin whale Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Canada PLOS ONE 13 9 e0202560 |
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Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Clément Chion Samuel Turgeon Guy Cantin Robert Michaud Nadia Ménard Véronique Lesage Lael Parrott Pierre Beaufils Yves Clermont Caroline Gravel A voluntary conservation agreement reduces the risks of lethal collisions between ships and whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary (Québec, Canada): From co-construction to monitoring compliance and assessing effectiveness. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Lethal collisions with ships are limiting the recovery of several at-risk whale species worldwide. In the St. Lawrence Estuary (Quebec, Canada), the endangered blue whale and of special concern fin whale are among the migratory species subject to collisions with large ships. In 2011, a working group composed of representatives from the maritime industry, the government, non-governmental organizations, and academia was created to explore solutions to mitigate ship-whale collisions in the St. Lawrence Estuary. Adopting an adaptive risk management framework, the working group took advantage of the best available scientific data and tools to co-construct realistic collision mitigation options and evaluate their likely benefits for whale conservation and costs for the industry. In 2013, the working group recommended the implementation of voluntary measures to mitigate collision risks, consisting of a slow-down area, a no-go area, and a caution area; a recommended route was added in 2014. Along with the voluntary framework, the working group agreed to continuously monitor compliance with and assess effectiveness of these mitigation measures. After the fourth year of implementation, voluntary measures showed encouraging results, with a reduction of up to 40% of lethal collision risks with fin whales in the highest density area. This reduction in risk is mainly related to ship speed reduction in the slow-down area from 14.1 ± 2.6 knots in 2012 to 11.3 ± 1.7 knots since 2014. The presence of a mandatory pilotage area overlapping with the slow-down area was instrumental to facilitate communication about the mitigation measures, with the pilotage corporation sitting as a regular member of the working group. This resulted in significantly slower speeds in the slow-down area for ships with a pilot from the pilotage corporation onboard compared to those without (-0.8 knots, p-value < 0.001). It is also likely to explain the weaker compliance of the maritime industry with the no-go area located outside of the mandatory ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Clément Chion Samuel Turgeon Guy Cantin Robert Michaud Nadia Ménard Véronique Lesage Lael Parrott Pierre Beaufils Yves Clermont Caroline Gravel |
author_facet |
Clément Chion Samuel Turgeon Guy Cantin Robert Michaud Nadia Ménard Véronique Lesage Lael Parrott Pierre Beaufils Yves Clermont Caroline Gravel |
author_sort |
Clément Chion |
title |
A voluntary conservation agreement reduces the risks of lethal collisions between ships and whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary (Québec, Canada): From co-construction to monitoring compliance and assessing effectiveness. |
title_short |
A voluntary conservation agreement reduces the risks of lethal collisions between ships and whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary (Québec, Canada): From co-construction to monitoring compliance and assessing effectiveness. |
title_full |
A voluntary conservation agreement reduces the risks of lethal collisions between ships and whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary (Québec, Canada): From co-construction to monitoring compliance and assessing effectiveness. |
title_fullStr |
A voluntary conservation agreement reduces the risks of lethal collisions between ships and whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary (Québec, Canada): From co-construction to monitoring compliance and assessing effectiveness. |
title_full_unstemmed |
A voluntary conservation agreement reduces the risks of lethal collisions between ships and whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary (Québec, Canada): From co-construction to monitoring compliance and assessing effectiveness. |
title_sort |
voluntary conservation agreement reduces the risks of lethal collisions between ships and whales in the st. lawrence estuary (québec, canada): from co-construction to monitoring compliance and assessing effectiveness. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202560 https://doaj.org/article/31a9a946e654467787f7f5eedc9a7bc6 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Blue whale Fin whale |
genre_facet |
Blue whale Fin whale |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 9, p e0202560 (2018) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6150506?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0202560 https://doaj.org/article/31a9a946e654467787f7f5eedc9a7bc6 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202560 |
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