Order Giving Notice of Decisions Not to Add Certain Species to the List of Endangered Species — 1
1 Winter Skate ( Leucoraja ocellata ) (Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence population, Eastern Scotian Shelf population and Georges Bank–Western Scotian Shelf–Bay of Fundy population) The Minister of the Environment has recommended, on the advice of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, that the Winter Skate (Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence population, Eastern Scotian Shelf population and Georges Bank–Western Scotian Shelf–Bay of Fundy population) not be added to the List of Wildlife Species at Risk. Skate are a fish species found around the world in water depths from shallow to deep. They are easily recognized by their flattened diamond shape, the result of greatly enlarged pectoral fins. They also have a long tail with two small dorsal fins near the tip. The upper surface is usually light to dark brown and the underside white to greyish. Winter Skate are distinguished from other skates by their rounded snout and eye spots on the upper side near the corner of the pectoral fins. However, these eye spots are not always present. In the absence of eye spots, a closer inspection of a variety of other characteristics must be carried out to correctly distinguish this species, particularly from Little Skate ( Leucoraja erinacea ) whose range overlaps that of Winter Skate. The lower surface of Winter Skate is usually whitish, often with irregular brownish blotches near the rear and tail. Winter Skate are found only in the northwest Atlantic, where approximately 50 percent of their range occurs in Canadian waters. They occur from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and southern Newfoundland in Canada to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in the United States. However, they are most abundant on Georges Bank, the Scotian Shelf and the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada and off southern New England in the United States. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) states that available evidence supports dividing the Canadian Winter Skate into four populations. The following three populations have been considered for addition to the List: the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Eastern Scotian Shelf, and Georges Bank–Western Scotian Shelf–Bay of Fundy populations. The fourth population, the Northern Gulf–Newfoundland population, was assessed as Data Deficient and therefore, not considered for addition to the List. The prohibitions under section 32 of the Species at Risk Act (“the Act”), which come into effect after listing a species as threatened or endangered, require that any activity that would result in killing, harming, harassing, capturing or taking the listed species be stopped immediately. This would include fishing activity, if the Winter Skate is caught as bycatch while listed as threatened or endangered, as is the case for the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence and Eastern Scotian Shelf populations, which have been assessed as endangered species and threatened species respectively. The negative socio-economic impacts of listing these populations would be significant and the population trajectory of the species is unlikely to be reversed as a result of the listing. The closure of commercial fisheries in Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization areas 4T and 4VW, which would be necessary as a result of listing these populations, would result in millions of dollars in lost revenue annually, as well as significant direct and indirect job losses. There is a lack of support from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and industry stakeholders for the listing of these three populations of Winter Skate. Some Aboriginal communities have also expressed reservations about listing. There have been significant declines in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Eastern Scotian Shelf populations of Winter Skate, while the abundance of mature Winter Skate is steady in the Georges Bank–Western Scotian Shelf–Bay of Fundy population and the geographic range of the population has neither increased nor decreased since the last abund