VANCOUVER – Better management is needed to protect the diversity and abundance of marine life off British Columbia’s Pacific North Coast, one of the few places of its kind in the world, according to a publication released today by four conservation groups. 

OTTAWA ─ A new poll by Nanos Research for Living Oceans Society reveals a high degree of distrust among Canadians with the current federal government’s capacity to balance environmental protection with economic activity.



“As Canada’s economy faces challenges, the pressure to cut environmental corners will grow,” said Jennifer Lash, Executive Director of Living Oceans Society. “Canadians need a government that we can trust to maintain the right balance between sustainable economic growth and protection for our environment, specifically for our oceans.”



Sointula, B.C. - What started 10 years ago in a spare bedroom in a small fishing village has grown into a powerful force working to conserve the health Canada's oceans. Living Oceans Society, the brainchild of founder and Executive Director Jennifer Lash, is now Canada's largest marine conservation organization, influencing oceans policies and practices from coast to coast to coast.

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.

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. - 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.  

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.

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.

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. — 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.