More temporary fisheries closures ordered after right whale sightings

HALIFAX – The federal government has announced more temporary fisheries closures in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence following North Atlantic right whale sightings.

The Fisheries Department says the new closures take effect this morning.

Ottawa says all gear must be removed from the affected areas, and notice will be given prior to reopening.

It says the closure affects fisheries including snow crab, toad crab, rock crab, lobster and whelk.

An entangled right whale was spotted last Friday in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, but fisheries officials have not been able to locate it despite extensive searches in the water and the air.

The incident marks the first known entanglement of the season in the gulf, where the endangered species migrates in the summer months to feed after calving off the southern U.S.