Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) announced on March 28 that the vessel speed restriction in the western Gulf of St. Lawrence to 10 knots for vessels of 20 metres or more will be reinstated from April 28 to November 15. Ships will evidently be allowed to proceed at normal speeds in parts of shipping lanes north and south of Anticosti Island, unless a right whale is spotted, in which case the slowdown would be activated temporarily in those parts of the shipping lanes. Both zone and dates will be subject to revision based on whale spotting and migration.

Various other measures were also announced.

This is the statement of intention only and which does not specify the relevant areas/coordinates, which may or may not be the same as last year’s speed restriction zone. Those interested should monitor the DFO website; we will post more here as soon as anything further comes to our attention. See the news release and the backgrounder.