Two marine terminal development projects could triple maritime traffic in the Saguenay and lead to a 10% increase in traffic in the remaining critical habitat of the St. Lawrence beluga. In July, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) submitted its report on one of the two projects, that of a marine terminal on the north shore of the Saguenay. In its report, the CEAA concludes that \u201ctaking into account the application of the mitigation measures\u2026 the project is not likely to cause significant cumulative effects on the St. Lawrence beluga [in the construction zone or] in the extended zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of this assessment, Fisheries and Oceans Canada was consulted. Beluga specialists at DFO answered specific questions about the risks associated with increased vessel traffic and mitigation measures for potential impacts of the project assessed by CEAA, as well as a second one for a maritime terminal near La Baie, on the south shore of the Saguenay. In their \u201cScience Response\u201d, the specialists conclude that the risks of adverse effects, notably noise disturbance, caused by the potential operation of the two new terminals are very real.<\/p>\n
How so? The\u00a0Whales Online <\/em>team has carefully read the \u201cScience Response\u201d and offers the following summary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two marine terminal development projects could triple maritime traffic in the Saguenay and lead to a 10% increase in traffic in the remaining critical habitat of the St. Lawrence beluga. In July, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) submitted its report on one of the two projects, that of a marine terminal on the north […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n