A western Quebec First Nation is urging the provincial and federal governments to protect American eels from dangerous practices at dams in the upper St. Lawrence River watershed that have severely curtailed their population.
Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg (KZA) wants safety improvements to start at the Carillon Generating Station — a dam on the Ottawa River east of Hawkesbury, Ont., near the Ontario-Quebec border — which is in the midst of a refurbishment project.
KZA’s band council passed a resolution on Nov. 26 calling on the CAQ government and Fisheries and Oceans Canada to take action there and to give American eels protected status.
“We’re losing a little bit of who we are,” said former chief Gilbert Whiteduck in a French-language interview with Radio-Canada.
The American eel, Whiteduck said, is a sacred fish with “spiritual significance for us.”
“We want our population, which continues to grow, to also go back to [catching] the eel, to use it as food and …