Media Releases

VANCOUVER – Living Oceans Society, the Pembina Institute, and ForestEthics are calling on the federal government to significantly strengthen the proposed environmental assessment for the proposed Enbridge Gateway Pipeline. If built, the dual pipelines would extend from the Alberta tar sands to the British Columbia coast, requiring tankers to ship both crude oil to markets in Asia and the US, and condensate, a product used in tar sands production, to Alberta.

VANCOUVER -- Delegates to one of the largest ocean management planning events in Canadian history are sending a clear message to the federal government that it’s time to take action to improve the conservation of British Columbia’s coastal waters.



SOINTULA, B.C. — On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Living Oceans Society is calling on the Government of Canada to make sure that British Columbia is not the site of the world’s next shipping disaster. The B.C. coast can be better protected by permanently banning oil tankers, improving oil spill response capabilities and strengthening shipping regulations.

VANCOUVER: The 2009 federal budget ignores recommendations of many Canadians to conserve and improve the management of our oceans and the industries that operate in Canada’s ocean environments said a group of environmental organizations today. 

The environmental groups, which include the David Suzuki Foundation, Living Oceans Society and the Sierra Club of BC, were looking for investments to help protect critical ocean resources, like fish stocks, and to improve management of the full range of industries that use our oceans. 

SOINTULA, B.C. ─ The Conservative government is using Canada’s struggling economy as an excuse to put our environment at risk, claims Living Oceans Society, a marine conservation organization based in British Columbia. Regulations that are currently proposed for inclusion in next week’s federal budget will exempt all projects valued at less than 10 million dollars from the Environmental Assessment process.

Sointula, B.C. and Halifax, N.S. - A new national study recommends that Fisheries and Oceans Canada immediately implement policies that prioritize the protection of habitat and marine life as well as provide incentives to fishermen to switch to less harmful fishing gear. This study, entitled How We Fish Matters: Addressing the Ecological Impacts of Canadian Fishing Gear, ranks the impacts of 13 different gear types used in Canada, from bottom trawls to lobster traps.

Vancouver/Sointula B.C. - Today Living Oceans Society, David Suzuki Foundation and Sierra Club BC congratulated Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Coastal First Nations on their bold agreement to formally work together to develop a comprehensive marine plan for an enormous area of British Columbia’s coast known as the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA).The formal Memorandum of Understanding lays out how the First Nations and federal governments will work together as they develop a plan for the conservation and sustainable use of our marine resources.  

Vancouver, B.C. – The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) has learned that fish farm companies are seeking approval to roughly double current licensed production on several farms in critical wild salmon migration routes such as the Broughton Archipelago and the northern Georgia Strait. This follows a provincially imposed moratorium on expansion into northern B.C. On a site- by-site basis, some farms could triple, quadruple or increase six-fold their current licensed production levels.

Vancouver/Sointula, B.C. - Living Oceans Society revealed today that it has uncovered years of unlicensed over-production on Mainstream Canada’s salmon farms in the beleaguered Broughton Archipelago off northern Vancouver Island.