Canada's closure of science libraries riles researchers
[ http://phys.org:80/news/2014-01-canada- ... riles.html ]
Jan 11, 2014 by Clément Sabourin
Canada's closure of science libraries containing a vast repository of environmental data dating back more than a century has researchers worried that valuable books and reference materials are being lost in the name of cost-cutting.
Unique in its shore access to three oceans (Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific) and with the largest number of freshwater lakes in the world, Canada over the years has amassed a huge cache of books and scientific reports on fisheries, meteorology and wildlife—on everything from beluga whales to songbirds.
Until recently they had been stored at seven Fisheries and Oceans and 12 Environment Canada libraries and reading rooms across the country.
But the federal government last year ordered most of them closed and fired dozens of librarians as they began consolidating the materials at three locations—in Sydney, British Columbia and in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (both Fisheries libraries), as well as at Environment Canada's National Hydrology Research Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where a single librarian with the help of a couple of students have reportedly been tasked with sorting through and cataloguing hundreds of boxes of materials transferred there, to date.
The closure of a government library at the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba in particular was mourned by many marine scientists because it held unique data on freshwater lakes dating back to 1880.
More worrying, according to researchers, is that excess and outdated materials have ended up in dumpsters, which local media reports likened to book burning.
"This is a national tragedy," said Peter Wells, a professor at Dalhousie University and senior research fellow at the International Ocean Institute, both in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The government however says the impact of the closures has been exaggerated, and that the libraries were frequented by a mere dozen people (other than government staff) annually, and that it also plans to digitize much of the books to allow a larger audience to access them online, more cheaply.
"It is absolutely false to insinuate that any books were burnt," Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said in a statement.
Shea explained that the department's collections of information on fisheries, aquatic sciences and nautical sciences—which it claims are "one of the world's most comprehensive"—will be preserved and new materials will continue to be added.
Only duplicate books have been discarded after being rejected by other libraries, staff and the general public, Shea said.
The minister's reassurances however have done little to quell the controversy with scepticism running high, after several other controversial policies enacted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government in recent years—including withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol and gagging government scientists—raised the ire of scientists. Researchers have called the measures attacks on science itself, and efforts aimed at silencing critics of the government's agenda, which is focused on jobs and the economy, with environmental stewardship arguably playing second fiddle.
This now widespread view—rightly or wrongly—that Harper has an anti-science bias even provoked a march on Parliament by scientists in laboratory coats, waving anti-Harper placards, in 2012, accusing the government of a lack of evidence-based decision-making.
"This government doesn't like scientific information (being out there) on environmental issues," Wells summed up.
The federal government has taken an "ideological decision" on the libraries, accused Jeff Hutchings, another maritime researcher at Dalhousie University and past chair of a Royal Society of Canada panel on marine biodiveristy.
"It's symbolic in a bad way," he said.
Hutchings told AFP he worries especially about the loss of marine data that stretches back before climate change and modern commercial fishing.
As well, he dismissed Shea's suggestion that the books and research would become more widely available online, as only works specifically requested have been scanned and digitized, according to him.
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Changes to fisheries legislation have removed habitat protection for most fish species in Canada
[ http://phys.org/news/2013-11-fisheries- ... tml#inlRlv ]
Nov 07, 2013
Federal government changes to Canada's fisheries legislation "have eviscerated" the ability to protect habitat for most of the country's fish species, scientists at the University of Calgary and Dalhousie University say in a new study.
The changes were "politically motivated," unsupported by scientific advice – contrary to government policy – and are inconsistent with ecosystem-based management, fisheries biologists John Post and Jeffrey Hutchings say.
Their comprehensive assessment, in a peer-reviewed paper titled "Gutting Canada's Fisheries Act: No Fishery, No Fish Habitat Protection," is published in the November edition of Fisheries, a journal of the 10,000-member American Fisheries Society.
"The biggest change is that habitat protection has been removed for all species other than those that have direct economic or cultural interests, through recreational, commercial and Aboriginal fisheries," says Post, professor of biological sciences at the University of Calgary.
Before, "there used to be a blanket habitat protection for all fish species," he says. "Now there's a projection just for species of economic importance which, from an ecological standpoint, makes no sense."
Studies cited by Post and Hutchings show that not protecting habitat is the "single greatest factor" for the decline and loss of commercial and non-commercial species on land and in water.
Yet the changes to the Fisheries Act removed the "mandated legal protection" of habitat even for fish species that are in decline, Post says.
About three-quarters of approximately 80 freshwater fish species in Canada listed as being at risk, threatened or endangered "are not going to receive the protection that they did in the past," Post says.
Hutchings is a former chair of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada while Post is a current member. Both scientists' research is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
One reason the federal government gave for making the changes last year was to streamline environmental reviews and make the regulatory process more efficient for development projects.
But Post and Hutchings' paper cites peer-reviewed scientific studies which found that between 2006 and 2011, only one project proposal among thousands was denied by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Only 1.6 per cent of 1,238 convictions under the previous Fisheries Act between 2007 and 2011 pertained to the destruction of fish habitat.
Also, environmental review times for projects under the previous Fisheries Act were found to be already in line with new review times mandated by the federal government last year.
There were some improvements made to the Fisheries Act, Post and Hutchings say. This included recognizing recreational and Aboriginal fisheries as being important, provision for policy on invasive species, and increased fines for contravening the legislation.
But at the same time, the federal government has closed many regional Fisheries and Oceans offices – including one in Calgary – and eliminated about 30 per cent of fisheries personnel who manage habitat issues, "so they no longer have the capacity to police infractions," Post says.
"Politically motivated dismantling of habitat protection provisions in the Fisheries Act erases 40 years of enlightened and responsible legislation and diminishes Canada's ability to fulfill its national and international obligations to protect, conserve, and sustainably use aquatic biodiversity," their paper says.