Fish habitat protections gutted under the previous government would be restored by legislative changes introduced in Ottawa Tuesday, along with a suite of new “modern safeguards” for Canada’s ocean environments — including tools to address urgent threats like last summer’s North Atlantic right whale die-off. The proposed amendments to Canada’s Fisheries Act were welcomed by Canada’s conservation community, among others. “Of course the devil is in the details,” said Susanna Fuller, senior marine co-ordinator at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, N.S. Scientists, conservationists, First Nations, and former Conservative and Liberal fisheries ministers decried the move. “The main thing is we’ve got HADD back,” said Linda Nowlan, a staff lawyer with the Vancouver-based West Coast Environmental Law.

Source: thestar February 07, 2018 00:11 UTC