Question about speed limits in Gulf of St. Lawrence to protect migrating Right Whales

[Turtles06]

We'll be sailing on the Celebrity Summit next month, with an overnight port call scheduled for Quebec City on Sept. 15-16.   We've just received an email from Celebrity notifying us that because of the Canadian government's speed limits in the Gulf of St. Lawrence put in place to protect migrating Right Whales, we'll be arriving in QC 90 minutes later than scheduled.  I have no objection, of course, to the speed limits. 

 

What's strange about this notice, though, is that the article linked below, published just three days ago, says that the Canadian government has not seen any whales in the past month, and, for now, has lifted the additional speed limits put in place earlier this summer.   It's not clear to me whether Celebrity is incorrect now (having missed that news), or whether Celebrity is basing our arrival time on the original speed limits, in which case it would seem they could have given people earlier notice of this (especially as folks may have tours scheduled).  

 

Or is all of this so in flux every summer that it's just a moving target for the cruise lines?

 

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/news/news-headlines/gulf-of-st-lawrence-speed-cap-zone-is-reduced/

 

Thanks for any info, and thanks also to @Jolie_Cruiser for posting the speed limit article in this forum the other day.

[declansdad]

The speed limit is imposed and listed when whales are spotted near the shipping lanes. They were in place earlier this summer but were recently lifted because no whales had been spotted for a few days. It's hard to predict so it may be the cruise line is just being proactive.

 

It does make it difficult to plan excursions though.

[princeton123211]

19 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

It's not clear to me whether Celebrity is incorrect now (having missed that news), or whether Celebrity is basing our arrival time on the original speed limits, in which case it would seem they could have given people earlier notice of this (especially as folks may have tours scheduled).  

They are most likely playing it safe in case the speed limits are imposed again. Easier to have you plan for a late arrival now than to spring it on you a few days before. Likewise, always better to surprise you with an extra hour and a half in port if they can speed up than to tell you they'll be late. 

[Turtles06]

Thank you both for the replies.

 

The thing that makes it so odd is that the speed limits were imposed some time ago, but Celebrity waited until three days after they were lifted to send out the notice of our late arrival.   (Fortunately, we have no private tours planned, and we can just go with the flow, so to speak.  😄)   

 

  

[chengkp75]

5 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

Thank you both for the replies.

 

The thing that makes it so odd is that the speed limits were imposed some time ago, but Celebrity waited until three days after they were lifted to send out the notice of our late arrival.   (Fortunately, we have no private tours planned, and we can just go with the flow, so to speak.  😄)   

 

  

My reading of the article you linked, is that there were additional zones added when the government found that ships were running outside the normal shipping lanes, and it is only these additional zones that have been lifted, so there is still a speed zone, that may not have been anticipated as being still in effect.

[Turtles06]

18 minutes ago, chengkp75 said:

My reading of the article you linked, is that there were additional zones added when the government found that ships were running outside the normal shipping lanes, and it is only these additional zones that have been lifted, so there is still a speed zone, that may not have been anticipated as being still in effect.

 

Thanks Chief, I read the article that way as well.    

 

Celebrity’s thinking on this will likely remain a puzzle; obviously, we’ll get to QC when we get there. 😄  (It would be great if we saw some whales along the way.)