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Oceans - National Brochure
Working Together to protect and promote Canada's oceans

Contents:

• Canada's Gifts from the Sea
• Canada's Gifts to the Sea
• Marine Environmental Quality Programs
• Integrated Management Program
• Marine Protected Areas
• From Sea to Sea to Sea
• Working Together to Protect and Promote Canada's oceans

Canada's Gifts From the Sea

Canada is bordered by three magnificent oceans
- the Arctic, the Atlantic, and the Pacific-
whose waters enter the land and fill our bays,
estuaries, and gulfs.

Canada's oceans are an integral part of our national identity. They grace the coast with breathtaking beauty and awesome power, and are key contributors to Canada's natural wealth, providing habitat for wildlife, recreational opportunities, a way of life for coastal people, and inspiration to writers and artists.

Canada's oceans support diverse and growing economic activities including aquaculture, tourism, shipping, fisheries, technology development, offshore oil & gas development, and offshore mining.

Oceans influence the social, cultural, and economic well-being of Canadians, particularly the 25% of Canadians who live in coastal communities. At the same time, the growth of coastal and oceans-related activities has sometimes resulted in imbalances, degradation of the marine environment, and the introduction of invasive species. All of these threaten the future of our oceans.

Urgent action is required to reconcile competing interests and activities impacting on the marine environment and to chart our course toward healthy, safe, and prosperous oceans for the benefit of present and future Canadians.

We Need To Act Now!

Canada's Gift TO THE SEA

In 1997, Canada entrenched its commitment to our oceans by adopting the Oceans Act.

This Act provides Canadians with the tools they need to develop a Canadian Oceans Strategy that is based on three main principles:

1. Sustainable Development

   Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

2. Integrated Management

   An ongoing and collaborative approach, which brings together interested parties to incorporate social, cultural, environmental, and economic values.

3. Precautionary Approach

A recognition that caution must be exercised to safeguard our oceans. This means taking action to conserve and protect the oceans when scientific information is lacking or incomplete.

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Canada's Oceans Strategy

To ensure healthy, safe, and prosperous oceans for the benefit of both current and future generations, Canadians- including coastal communities; social, cultural, environmental and economic organizations; aboriginal groups; governments; and others- must work together to develop integrated management plans to:

1. Balance social, cultural, environmental, and economic values to ensure sustainable development.
2. Manage the increasingly complex and diverse socio-economic uses of Canada's oceans.
3. Engage communities and stakeholders in making decisions
   that affect them and their environment.

Canada's Ocean Vision:

To ensure healthy, safe, and prosperous oceans for the benefit of current and future generations of Canadians.

Canada's Oceans Strategy is a coordinated policy and decision-making process that will implement Canada's vision for oceans management.

The Canada's Oceans Strategy is supported by three Programs:

Through these Programs, Canada's Oceans Strategy will also:

• Regulate activities in areas requiring special protection.
  
• Monitor the success of management initiatives.

Marine Environmental Quality Program

The objective of the Marine Environmental Quality Program is to provide scientific assessment of marine ecosystem health.

Understanding marine ecosystems

In the marine ecosystem, everything is interrelated. The abundance of living marine resources, for example, depends on their food, their habitat for reproduction, their predators, and the quality of the water they depend on. Both natural and human activities, including climate change, man-made pollution and the use of marine resources, affect the health of marine ecosystems.

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Providing scientific

The scientific assessment of ecosystem health, including traditional ecological knowledge, is critical to ensuring the sustainable development of marine resources. Such marine environmental quality assessment forms the basis of sound decision making in developing integrated management plans. It also identifies areas or resources in need of special protection.

To provide this assessment, we need indicators that take into consideration a number of ecosystem conditions. These conditions include temperature (climate change), water quality, contaminant levels, the abundance of plants and animals, and the interactions among these elements. These indicators will provide evidence of whether ecosystem health is improving or deteriorating.

Developing ecosystem objectives

Ecosystem objectives identify environmental conditions needed to sustain living marine resources and their supporting habitat. These objectives must be included in integrated management plans if sustainable development is to be achieved.

Rather than protecting a single resource, the goal is to address the health of ecosystems as a whole.

Integrated Management Program

The objective of the Integrated Management Program is to engage and work collaboratively with citizens and stakeholders in developing and implementing integrated management plans

Involving citizens and building consensus

All stakeholders - including coastal communities; social, cultural, environmental and economic organizations; aboriginal groups; governments; and others - must be involved in determining the best mix of conservation, sustainable, use and economic development.

Practicing knowledge-based planning

It is essential that all stakeholders be informed of current and potential uses of marine resources and associated socio-economic benefits and environmental impacts. Information about ecosystem health, resources, and/or areas in need of special protection must also be made readily available.

Providing socio-economic assessment

Agreement among all stakeholders leads to integrated management plans that balance social, cultural, environmental, and economic values and objectives.

The assessment of the potential costs and benefits of conservation, social, cultural, and economic activities is an essential component in the develop- ment of integrated management plans. This socio-economic assessment, along with the marine environmental quality assessment, everyone involved with the information required to develop plans that meet the needs of stakeholders while maintaining the health of our oceans.

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Marine Protected Areas Program

The objective of the Marine Protected Areas Program is to conserve and protect areas and resources of special interest.

Providing special protection

In marine protected areas, activities impacting on living marine resources and their supporting ecosystem can be regulated. Areas or resources requiring special protection can be proposed by coastal communities; environmental, social, or economic organizations; aboriginal organisations; governments; or any other individual or group.

Establishing areas and resources of special interest

Marine protected areas may be established for the conservation and protection of:

• commercial and non-commercial fishery resources (including marine mammals) and their habitats;
• endangered and threatened marine species and their habitats;
• unique habitats;
• marine areas of high biodiversity or biological productivity; and
• any other marine resource or habitat requiring special protection.

From Sea TO Sea To Sea

Canada, both domestically and internationally, is increasingly reflecting the new approach to Oceans Management. Under the auspices of the United Nations Global Programme

of Action, we are the first country in the world to implement a National Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land- based Activities. We have played an active role in implementing a sustainable development strategy as laid out in Agenda 21 of the Rio Declaration. We are also moving towards meeting our commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Canada is a driving force in the protection of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks through the United Nations Fish Agreement

Implementation of the Oceans Act and the development of Canada's Oceans Strategy requires:

• strong community involvement;

• shared efforts to conserve and protect ecologically sensitive oceans and resources;

• a willingness and commitment to manage the multiple uses of our oceans;

• development of a strong oceans knowledge base; and

• an increased awareness of the importance of sustaining marine ecosystems for present and future generations.

Canadians across the country have already demonstrated a high level of commitment to the conservation, protection, and responsible management of Canada's gifts from the sea.

But . . . this is only a beginning.

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For further information on how YOU can become involved, please contact:

Newfoundland Region:

Regional Director,
Science, Oceans and
Environment Branch
St. John's,
Newfoundland
(709) 772-2027

Maritimes Region:

Regional Director,
Oceans
Dartmouth,
Nova Scotia
(902) 426-2065

Laurentian Region:

Regional Director,
Oceans
Mont-Joli,
Québec
(418) 775-0703

Central & Arctic
Region:

Regional Director,
Habitat,
Fisheries & Oceans Management
Winnipeg, Manitoba
(204) 983-5271

Pacific Region:

Regional Director,
Oceans
Vancouver,
British Columbia
(604) 666-7971

National Capital
Region:

Director General,
Oceans
Ottawa, Ontario
(613) 990-0001

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From Sea TO Sea To Sea

Let's continue to work together to ensure our nation takes a leadership role in protecting and managing our oceans for both present and future generations.

Together, we will make a difference.

Published by:

Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Marine Ecosystems Conservation Branch
Oceans Directorate
Ottawa, ON K1A 0E6 DFO/6046

© Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada 2000
Cat. No.: FS23-380/2000
ISBN: 0-662-64918-4

Working Together to Protect and Promote Canada's Oceans

(Letter from the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans)

As Canada's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, it gives me great pleasure to present Working Together to Protect and Promote Canada's Oceans. Within these pages, you will learn my department's approach to sound oceans management, and some of the steps we are taking to ensure a strong and lasting oceans heritage for generations to come.

As a country bordered by three oceans, Canada can truly be called an "ocean nation." The sea and its resources have long played an important role in Canada's economic strength and cultural heritage, shaping who we are as a people. Today, the sea continues to play an important role, supporting traditional industries like fisheries and shipping, and new and emerging ones, like tourism, aquaculture, and oil and gas development.

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With this dramatic growth in activity, however, we risk becoming victims of our own success. This growth has resulted in a gradual degradation of our fragile marine environment, putting the future of this valuable resource at risk.

With the new millennium upon us, the challenge is to balance this growth in activity, which supports jobs and gives Canada an important economic boost, with our commitment to maintaining and enhancing the well-being of our marine environment.

Canada's Oceans Act helps to give us this balance. The Act's three over-riding principles of sustainable development, integrated management, and the precautionary approach will give us the guidance we need as we develop the long-term Canadian Oceans Strategy that will ensure our success in the future.

As you will see in this booklet, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is making great progress towards this long-term plan. The Canadian Oceans Strategy is a co-ordinated policy and decision-making process that will make Canada's vision for sound oceans management a reality.

But we cannot do it alone. All oceans stakeholders, including Aboriginal groups, communities, businesses, government, and environmental organizations must work together to ensure healthy, safe and prosperous oceans for years to come.

I am confident that by working together, Canada can lead the world in finding the best ways to protect our oceans, for present and future generations of Canadians.

Sincerely,
The Honourable Herb Dhaliwal

P.C., M.P.
Department of Fisheries and Oceans