Press Release
October 7, 2004
Canada’s Oceans Score Big in Speech from the Throne
VANCOUVER - The Government of Canada has indicated a commitment to Canada’s oceans in yesterday’s speech from the throne, but conservationists want to make sure it is followed up with real action and budget commitments.
In the speech, the Government of Canada committed to moving forward on its Oceans Action Plan, and noted its intention to complete a network of marine protected areas, implement integrated management plans, enhance the enforcement of rules governing oceans and fisheries, and maximize the use and development of oceans technology.
“We are very happy to see the Government of Canada reconfirming the commitment it made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to establish a network of marine protected areas in Canada’s oceans by 2012,” says Sabine Jessen, Conservation Director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s B.C. chapter. “We hope this will significantly speed up efforts to establish marine protected areas in sites already being considered on each of Canada’s three coasts.”
Jessen points out that, while the oceans were once considered an infinite resource, we now have the technology to catch the last fish. Recent scientific evidence has shown the dramatic impact that humans are having on the global marine environment, especially through fishing practices. We are fishing down marine food webs, to the point that 90 per cent of all the large fish in the world’s oceans have disappeared. As a result, scientists are calling on all countries of the world to establish marine protected areas to replace the natural refuges for marine species that have been eliminated by the advancement of fishing technology.
In Canada, three federal agencies - Fisheries and Oceans, Environment, and Parks - have mandates to establish different, but complementary types of marine protected areas. “To complete a network of marine protected areas requires a serious funding commitment to all of these agencies,” says Jessen, “ which we will be looking for in the next federal budget.”
“There are terrestrial parks across the country to protect habitat and species diversity,” says Chloe O’Loughlin, Executive Director of CPAWS-BC, “but there is no equivalent system to protect marine biodiversity. If all the wolves and bears disappeared people would notice. That’s what’s happening in the oceans.”
“Scientists are showing us that marine protected areas are effective tools for protecting marine biodiversity,” said Jessen, “but Canada lags behind many countries in the world in putting marine protected areas in place.”
“Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, 33 per cent of which is a no-take zone, is more than ten times larger than all of Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial marine protected areas combined,” says Jodi Stark, Marine Campaign Coordinator at CPAWS-B.C.
In Australia, political support for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was backed by increased funding in the last year.
Meeting yesterday’s Speech from the Throne commitment will also require cooperation with provincial, territorial, and First Nations governments. In British Columbia, the Government of Canada has signed a memorandum of understanding with the B.C. government to cooperate on oceans issues, including marine protected areas.
“We look forward to working with both governments to ensure that a network of MPAs is completed on the Pacific coast,” says Jessen, “We are already working with local residents to advance a number of existing MPA candidates, including two proposed National Marine Conservation Areas in Gwaii Haanas and the Southern Strait of Georgia, the proposed Scott Islands Marine Wildlife Area, and three proposed Oceans Act MPAs at Bowie Seamount, Gabriola Passage, and Race Rocks.”
In addition to these existing candidates for protection, completing a network of MPAs will require the identification and protection of many other sites, including rare and unique sites like the Hecate Strait sponge reefs, which have been damaged by bottom trawling.
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is Canada’s grassroots voice for wilderness. CPAWS has a demonstrated ability to achieve results on the ground. Since our founding in 1963, we have helped to protect over 100 million acres of Canada’s wild areas. We are highly respected for our science-driven campaigns to establish new protected areas and to ensure that “nature comes first” in the management of existing parks.
CPAWS - British Columbia Chapter