Ocean’s Report 2021 – Assessing Canada’s Marine Protected Areas

With the longest coastline in the world and one of the largest ocean estates, Canada is home to some of the most productive and diverse marine ecosystems on the planet — from the largest animal to ever roam our earth, the blue whale, to ancient bacteria dwelling around deep ocean vents. [...] This situation is exacerbated by the wide range of tools used to establish MPAs, the resulting array of different management measures and protection levels, and the lack of a shared language to describe and evaluate MPAs. [...] 24 | Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society A S S E S S I N G C A N A DA ’ S M A R I N E P R OT E C T E D A RE A S 2 0 2 1 To address this situation, The MPA Guide has been developed by a global team of MPA experts with the goal of helping MPA managers and decision-makers understand the varying categories of MPAs and the conservation outcomes likely to be achieved across different levels of protect. [...] The C-NSOPB has had a policy-based moratorium in place, but MPA regulations for The Gully do not rule out the possibility of oil and gas occurring in a portion of the MPA in the future. [...] Given the depth of the reefs, their fragility and sensitivity to direct impact and sedimentation, and the proximity of the AMZ to the reefs in some places, we deemed this to be incompatible with the conservation objectives, thus making the entire AMZ incompatible.