The revisions would mean that the majority of freshwater fish and up to 80 per cent of the 71 freshwater species at risk of extinction would lose protection, according to the letter from the 1,000-strong Canadian Society For Ecology and Evolution (CSEE) provided exclusively to the Vancouver Sun.
The letter is signed by Dalhousie University professor Jeffrey Hutchings, a current member and former chairman from 2006-2010 of the federal government's main independent advisory body on species at risk, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).
CSEE also is denouncing the closure of a world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) near Kenora in northwestern Ontario, a decision described in the latest issue of the British magazine Nature as the equivalent of the U.S. shuttering the Los Alamos nuclear physics site.
CSEE member Nick Dulvy, a Simon Fraser University professor who worked formerly as a fisheries scientist in the British government, said the two moves add to his growing alarm about the Harper government's "misuse" of science.
"In my time working in the U.K. government I never saw any sign that any of the behaviour, practice or actions of the Canadian government would be even remotely tolerated," Dulvy, recruited by SFU to become Canada Research Chair in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, said in an email interview.
The letter, to be sent Tuesday to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield, slams the proposed changes to the Fisheries Act in Bill C-38, the omnibus budget implementation bill now being studied by two House of Commons committees.
The legislation would eliminate one of the most powerful environmental components of federal law — the ban on any activity that results in "harmful" alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat.
It is being replaced by a prohibition against activity that results in "serious" harm to fish that are part of a commercial, recreational or aboriginal fishery, or any fish that supports one of those three fisheries.
"Serious harm" is defined as the "death of fish" or any "permanent" alteration to, or "destruction" of, fish habitat.
"This revision will remove habitat protection for most of Canada's freshwater fish," Hutchings wrote on behalf of the 1,000 scientists.
"The revision will also impair Canada's ability to fulfill its legislated obligations to prevent the extinction of aquatic species," he added, noting that it's "improbable" that 80 per cent of the 71 wildlife species at risk of extinction would be considered to be part of, or supporting, the three fisheries.
The change also will end protection for other aquatic species that share habitat with fish, including amphibians, reptiles, mussels, crayfish and "numerous" aquatic plants and insects, according to the letter.
University of B.C. zoology professor Eric Taylor, co-chair of freshwater fishes for the COSEWIC panel advising the government on species at risk, zeroed in on C-38's focus on money-making fisheries.
"It's another knock against the inherent value of biodiversity — of all things, whether or not they have any immediate economic values, and I personally think that is regrettable," said Taylor. He, like Hutchings, stressed that he's not speaking on behalf COSEWIC, the federal advisory body.
Hutchings said the government is impairing its own legislated responsibilities under the Species At Risk Act (SARA), which states in its preamble that the habitat of species at risk "is key to their conservation."
The letter from the 1,000 scientists also expresses "profound disappointment" in the "surprising and short-sighted" decision to shut down the ELA research facility that includes 58 small lakes and their watersheds.
"It provides unparalleled opportunities to undertake whole-ecosystem manipulation experiments," Hutchings wrote.
"There is no comparable research facility in the world."
University of Alberta freshwater researcher David Schindler, who founded ELA in the late 1960s and ran it until 1989, said in an interview that research at the site has led to the removal of phosphorus from detergents and sewage.
"The financial implications of this alone are worth billions of dollars."
Work at the site was critical also in the development of tough acid rain rules, and has "continued to produce results of similar importance in underpinning on endocrine disrupting chemicals, climate change, reservoir design to minimize greenhouse gas output, and mercury control," said Schindler.
The University of B.C.'s Sarah Otto said in an email exchange that the Experimental Lakes Area in Ontario was the "canary in the gold mine" for the world, and noted that its closure is garnering international attention in the scientific community.
The latest issue of the British journal Nature, titled "Canada's renowned freshwater research site to close," quoted Arizona State University aquatic ecologist Jim Elser calling the closure "completely shocking".
"It is sort of like the U.S. government shutting down Los Alamos — its most important nuclear-physics site — or taking the world's best telescope and turning it off."
Hutchings noted in the letter that Ashfield still has not responded to a previous letter from his group, sent in March before the legislation was tabled, asking the minister to make public his department's own scientific analysis of the impact of the changes on fish, fish habitat and species at risk.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Peter O'Neil and Larry Pynn
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