General Discussion

Omaha Steve

(99,505 posts) Thu Dec 11, 2014, 11:55 PM Dec 2014

A Whale Has Done What People Have Not: Stop Tar Sands Oil

http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/12/10/how-endangered-beluga-whales-stopped-construction-pipeline-terminal?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2014-12-11

(Photo: Tiffany Terry/Flickr)

Only 1,000 of the marine mammals survive in the St. Lawrence estuary, and they’ve been spotted near the planned project.

December 10, 2014 By Taylor Hill

Taylor Hill is TakePart's associate environment and wildlife editor.

TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, halted work on an oil export terminal in Quebec after beluga whales were sighted in the area.

The move followed the decision of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada to assess the whales as endangered. They had previously been classified as threatened.

“This news that there’s a recommendation to place those belugas on the endangered species list, for us, was a signal that we needed to hit the pause button,” TransCanada spokesman Tim Duboyce told Reuters.

The beluga population in the St. Lawrence Estuary has dwindled from a high of 10,000 to 1,000.

FULL story at link.