Environment: Protecting BC's Marine Environment

August-September 1996

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Sabine Jessen

For those who love paddling, British Columbia is a mecca. This province has one of the richest and most dramatic coastlines in the world, from deep dark fjords to marshy lagoons, and from open wave-swept coasts to sheltered sparkling bays. Our marine waters teem with fish, birds, mammals, shellfish, and plants. However, as people who are close to this beautiful marine environment, kayakers are becoming increasingly aware of the many threats facing its future health, and the need for real action now to protect it.

There have been many obvious signs that we are degrading the ocean environment. Whether we look back to the eradication of BC's sea otter population around the turn of the century, to the over-harvesting and pollution that have resulted in the closure of a number of fisheries, including abalone, ling cod, and various shellfish or the more recent decline in salmon stocks, it is clear that more needs to be done to protect biodiversity in our ocean.

What can we do about these problems? Marine protected areas (MPSa) are a crucial component of an effective marine conservation program. Until recently there has been a lack of awareness of marine conservation issues, primarily due to the fact that relatively few people have access to the marine environment. It has been a case of "out-of-sight, out-of-mind". There is a need for increased public and political awareness that the oceans are more than places to float boats, dump garbage, or catch fish.

Marine protected areas are designated areas within the marine environment which have long-term legal protection. MPAs can range in both size and types of uses permitted. They can be small, non-extractive or "no-take" zones, in which no consumptive human activities are permitted, such as Whytecliff and Porteau Cove. They can also be large, zoned, multiple-use areas, that allow for a variety of human activities compatible with the conservation objectives of the area. These zones can include core areas to protect vital ecological features and processes, buffer zones to protect the core areas from the effects of human activities, and outer transition zones in which a variety of human activities may be permitted to the extent that they do not compromise the conservation values of the area. The most famous example of this type of zoned MPA is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia.

Long time readers of WaveLength will have read about the Endangered Spaces Campaign launched by World Wildlife Fund Canada and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society in 1989. This Campaign has a specific, measurable goal: to help conserve a representative sample of the country's terrestrial and one-third of its marine natural regions by the year 2000, and to complete the marine protected areas system by 2010.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) was founded in 1963 and is the only national grassroots advocacy organization whose exclusive focus is protecting Canada's wilderness heritage. Through our nine regional chapters across Canada, CPAWS is actively involved in the establishment of new protected areas and improving the management of existing protected areas.

Since 1993, the British Columbia chapter of CPAWS has become increasingly concerned about the lack of attention to marine conservation issues, and more specifically, about the lack of progress in establishing marine protected areas as part of an overall marine conservation program. We have convened a number of multi-stakeholder workshops to address this lack of progress and to push for greater cooperation between the federal and provincial government agencies.

Last year, CPAWS-BC and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada agreed to work together to promote, in a more active way, the establishment of a system of marine protected areas that will protect ecologically representative examples of BC's coastal and offshore habitats. Crucial to this effort is working cooperatively with coastal communities, other environmental organizations, First Nations, scientists, fishers, paddlers and other stakeholders. It is clear to us that community initiatives to establish and manage marine protected areas will be critical to progress in better protecting the marine environment, and to protecting the economic and social health of these communities.

This year, WWF Canada has supported a number of community initiatives to establish marine protected areas. In British Columbia, these initiatives include MPA proposals for Trincomali Channel near Galiano Island, Sabine Channel between Texada and Lasqueti Islands, the marine area adjacent to William Head prison, and Browning Passage in Queen Charlotte Strait. We look forward to working with other local communities to identify candidate MPAs and to move them through what can be a complex jurisdictional environment.

CPAWS-BC and WWF Canada are also in the process of identifying a couple of candidate areas for the establishment of large, zoned MPAs. Two areas which look promising include the southern Gulf Islands and Queen Charlotte Strait. We are also urging the federal government to get on with the final designation of the Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area.

We have suggested that an area be considered 'protected' only if human activities which are known to or are likely to cause large-scale, long-term habitat disturbance, are legally prohibited within marine protected areas. Such activities include non-renewable resource development (such as mining and oil and gas development), large-scale dredging, dumping, and bottom trawling or dragging. Other activities would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Because marine ecosystems are generally larger than terrestrial ones, and because ecological boundaries are even more changeable in water than on land, marine conservation specialists support the creation of large marine protected areas, because they are more likely to make greater contributions to protecting species and ecosystems than are smaller areas. Whether a marine protected area actually contributes to conserving biodiversity and achieving representation goals will depend on the extent to which it captures the characteristic biophysical elements of is respective natural region, and on the level of protection afforded to the area.

The successful establishment and maintenance of a system of marine protected areas offers a number of important environmental, social and economic benefits, including the protection of representative examples of marine habitats, and rare or threatened species, as well as providing environmental insurance to combat unanticipated environmental catastrophes. MPAs can also provide significant recreation and tourism opportunities.

A network of MPAs that represents the full range of marine habitats will help protect all species. Animals that live their whole lives within an MPA will be more protected by an area than animals that only pass through the area, but even highly mobile and migratory species will benefit from the elevated level of protection they receive while they are in MPAs. This is not unlike the role of terrestrial protected areas in helping to protect highly mobile animals such as birds, caribou, wolves and bears.

Progress in establishing MPAs has been dismal across Canada. To date in British Columbia, of the 29,000 km of coastline, 6500 coastal islets and 290,000 km2 of marine waters, only about 5000 km2 of marine waters have some degree of protection, and most of this is concentrated in the coastal nearshore region. The establishment of MPAs has been impeded by government preoccupation with terrestrial and jurisdictional issues, and by major jurisdictional, legislative, policy and program gaps, overlaps and conflicts.

Recently, however, the federal and provincial governments have recognized the need to work cooperatively to develop and implement a marine protected areas strategy in British Columbia. To that end, an Inter-government Marine Protected Areas Steering Committee and Working Group have been established. They have planned a series of consultation sessions with a variety of stakeholders to determine their views about marine protected areas in BC. They have also recently committed to increase the level of protection of the marine components of a number of existing protected areas in BC, by implementing additional fisheries closures to achieve full "no-take" status. In addition, the draft Canada Oceans Act will hopefully be passed in this legislative session, providing an urgently needed framework for national marine conservation initiatives.

On April 30th, World Wildlife Fund Canada released the 1995/96 Endangered Spaces Progress Report, which for the first time includes separate assessments on the establishment of marine protected areas on each of Canada's main coasts. Although the Pacific Region grade was the highest in the country, a "C" grade certainly indicates that there is a long way to go. We have recommended that both governments work over the next year to ensure that: a draft regional action plan is prepared with specific action steps and timelines; guidelines for maintaining ecological integrity in MPAs is maintained; the protection regimes for existing and new marine protected areas meet or exceed WWF protection standards; the Gwaii Haanas national marine conservation area receives final designation; and that Gabriola Passage is given legal protection.

If we are going to achieve better conservation of our marine environment, we need help from people like you who enjoy and care about what happens to the ocean. For more information, or to help with the campaign, please call me.Sabine Jessen is the Executive Director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society-BC and Coordinator, Marine Protected Areas, BC Endangered Spaces Campaign, World Wildlife Fund Canada. You can reach her at 604-685-7445 or fax 604-685-6449 or email sjessen@web.net.