Humpback protections downgrade clears way for pipeline

Environmentalist activists on Tuesday decried Canada's downgradingof humpback whale protections, suggesting the decision was fast-tracked to clear amajor hurdle to constructing a pipeline to the Pacific Ocean.The government however denied it is playing pipeline politics with the whales.Ottawa announced over the weekend the reclassification of humpback whales as a"species of special concern" rather than "threatened." As a result, the humpback's "critical habitat" off Canada's west coast will no longerbe legally protected, states a federal government notice published in the CanadaGazette.Jay Ritchlin of the David Suzuki Foundation told AFP that the decision was taken"incredibly fast.""That it is happening right at the same time that a major development (the NorthernGateway pipeline) is being proposed is a reasonable concern," he added.The opposition New Democrats also accused the ruling Tories of acting "to pleasetheir friends in the oil industry and pave the way for the Northern Gatewaypipeline."The government however insisted that it was simply "following the advice of anindependent body of experts."The humpback was listed as threatened in 2005, based on a 2003 assessment by ascientific advisory panel, which concluded its population was in the "low hundreds,"according to the government.The figures were revised in 2011, concluding that the population had in fact grownsince the end of commercial whaling off Canada's west coast in the 1960s, and nowtotalled more than 18,000.A reclassification was recommended then, but a decision was delayed to allow formore analysis.The David Suzuki Foundation and others warned during last year's public hearingson the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal that plans to mitigate shipping's impacton the whales was inadequate.Whale proponents worry that the increased ship traffic in the region will result inmore collisions with whales, and engine noises disrupting the whales' migrationand feeding."The whales have made a recovery and their population is growing," Ritchlinacknowledged. But, he added, it's too soon to remove their habitat protections.Enbridge Inc.'s Northern Gateway project aims to move 525,000 barrels of crude perday from Edmonton, Alberta across 1,178 kilometers (732 miles) of rugged mountainlandscapes to a new marine terminal in Kitimat on British Columbia's northerncoast, for shipping to Asia.The Kitimat marine terminal would have two tanker berths, three condensate tanksand 16 oil storage tanks.Up to 220 supertankers would use the terminal each year, one report estimated.A final decision on whether to allow the project to proceed now rests with thefederal cabinet, which has until July 2014 to announce its decision.