Web Paddling: Protecting What We Love

August-September 2003

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Ted Leather

Like many of the people involved with and/or reading WaveLength, I live near the ocean (actually on an island) so for me to travel anywhere means getting out on the water. I love the areas where land meets the sea, as do most people, whether paddling or walking along the shoreline. Yet I recognize that land and sea are not separate, and in fact are an interwoven ecosystem.

Most of the writers in this issue can speak with much more eloquence and knowledge than I about coastal ecosystems, so I will simply highlight other websites offering information about marine protected areas.

Close to my home and heart is Orca Pass where there is a concerted effort to get a marine protected area established. The effort is complicated by the fact that part of it is located in the Gulf Islands in Canadian waters and part in the San Juan Islands in US waters. Many prominent endorsers have given their support (www.georgiastrait.org/OrcaPass/endorsers.php). For more information see the Georgia Strait Alliance web page (www.georgiastrait.org/orcapass.php) or People for Puget Sound (www.pugetsound.org/ orcapass/), the two lead partners in this initiative.

Just outside Orca Pass is Race Rocks, the most southerly part of Canada on the Pacific Coast. The extraordinary tidal flow, one of the strongest on the coast, is not surprising when one considers that the entire flow of a one or two fathom tidal change for all of Georgia Strait, Haro Strait and Puget Sound rushes past Race Rocks twice each day. Visit www.racerocks.com/ and be sure to check out their underwater videocams. For other web cams see www.orcacam.com/orcapass.html and www.orca-live.net/.

The importance of marine protected areas is recognized worldwide, and the following are some websites highlighting these efforts:

• www.unep-wcmc.org/wh/reviews/wetlands/: a global overview of wetland and marine protected areas on the world heritage list

• www.mpa.gov/: marine protected areas of the USA

• www.parkscanada.gc.ca/progs/amnc-nmca/index_E.asp: National Marine Conservation Areas of Canada

• www.cousteausociety.org/tcs_issues_mpas.html: The Cousteau Society and the Marine Conservation Biology Institute

• www.ea.gov.au/coasts/mpa/: general MPA info but also focusing on Australia

• www.ngo.grida.no/wwfneap/Projects/MPA.htm: World Wildlife Fund promoting a network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the North-East Atlantic

• www.reefbase.org/management/man_mpa.asp: ReefBase, protected areas searchable by continent or country

• www.icran.org/: The International Coral Reef Action Network

• www.depts.washington.edu/mpanews/: international news and analysis on Marine Protected Areas.

© Ted Leather is the WaveLength Webmaster and owner of Clayrose Internet Creations on Gabriola Island. www.clayrose.com.

Stay tuned for Ted’s Costa Rica experience in our upcoming ‘Winter Getaways’ issue.