Attention New Editors: Lois Corbett, Executive Director, and Matt Abbott, the Fundy Baykeeper. issued the following statement with respect to the introduction of the new national Fisheries Act.
“The new law that protects Canada’s fisheries and their upstream and downstream habitat is good news for New Brunswick coastal communities and the thousands of jobs that depend on them.
Important provisions to protect all fish habitat are restored and will be required by law— undoing the damaged caused in 2012 when the Act was gutted. Stopping pollution from entering our oceans is a key part of the new purpose guiding government decision making, as is recognizing Indigenous Rights.
In New Brunswick, the new Act should mean wider buffer zones along our streams and rivers and stronger pollution prevention steps can be taken to protect our fresh water species like salmon and trout. Along our ocean shores, the provisions should mean better protection for coastal wetlands and estuaries, and habitat protection for the critical lobster fishery,” said Corbett.
“It’s a good day for all of the communities and the men and women whose livelihood is made day in and day out along the Bay of Fundy,” said Abbott, the Conservation Council’s Fundy Baykeeper. “Minister LeBlanc’s new law is smart — it looks at how to protect the Bay as a complete ecosystem, from the small plankton that the right whales depend on all the way up the Bay’s food chain.”
To arrange an interview, contact:
Jon MacNeill, Communications Director, 238-3539 (m) | 458-8747 (w) | jon.macneill@conservationcouncil.ca
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