Beneath Canada’s North Pacific waters lies a globally-unique biological treasure: glass sponge reefs. These sponge reefs are made from tiny glass spicules (needle-like skeletal elements), and were thought to have gone extinct during the Cretaceous period 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago. Scientists were very surprised when sponge reefs were discovered in Hecate Strait in 1987.
Canada has 197 Pacific Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), but most are very small. Combined they take up only three percent (about 14,000 km²) of the total area of Canada’s Pacific waters.
In 2002 the World Parks Congress recommended that 20-30 percent of every habitat in the oceans be given full protection from fishing within ‘no take’ zones. No take zones are safe havens where sea life can regenerate without human disruption.
Few marine creatures are more iconic of British Columbia’s coast than the killer whale. Historically, these magnificent whales were targeted as competitors for the salmon fisheries, to the point where n 1961 Fisheries and Oceans Canada installed a machine gun at Seymour Narrows just north of Campbell River as part of a planned cull that was called off when the whales shifted their foraging pattern.
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are ocean places that are set aside like parks, providing sanctuary for individual species and entire food-webs so they can recover and thrive. MPAs protect rare fish and corals, endangered marine mammals and migratory birds.
In August 2007, a barge carrying logging equipment accidentally spilled its load into Robson Bight Ecological Reserve, a critical habitat for the Northern Resident killer whales which are listed as a Species at Risk. The spilled equipment contained an estimated 19,000 litres of fuel and hydraulic fluid including 10,000 litres of diesel in a fuel truck.
In June 2010, DFO identified the glass sponge reefs of Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound as an “Area of Interest” and began the formal process of establishing a Marine Protected Area (MPA) around them. Living Oceans Society is participating in the process to establish this higher level of protection.
A research paper by Living Oceans was published in the journal Coastal Management in May 2015, which examined Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Canada's Pacific waters. The paper assessed how existing MPAs could contribute to Canada’s promised network of MPAs.
In partnership with the Regional District of Mount Waddington, Living Oceans Society conducted a socio-economic study that looked at how much the ocean means to the financial well-being of northern Vancouver Island and the Broughton Archipelago.
Although socio-economic assessments have been done for British Columbia or the greater coastal region, there are some big gaps in detail at the community level. As a result, local government and people in the communities lack reliable information about their economic dependence upon a healthy ocean.
The British Columbia Marine Conservation Analysis (BCMCA), a collaborative project co-chaired by Karin Bodtker of the Living Oceans Society, released its Marine Atlas of Pacific Canada. The on-line atlas contains 260 maps with accompanying facing pages, beautifully illustrating the marine ecological features and human uses of the B.C. coast.
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