In Polls, Letters and Dollars Canadians Show Increasing Concern for Canada’s Waters While Industrial Activity Threatens a Key Marine Site

“While Canada has more ocean coast and freshwater than any other nation in the world, we still lag far behind in protecting our waters,” said Josh Laughren, Director of World Wildlife Fund Canada’s Marine Conservation Program. “Marine protected areas are vital to ensure the health of our waters. Water is Canada’s future, and our legacy to the world.”

An Environics poll released today shows that 74 per cent of Canadians believe it is “very important” for governments to honour their 1992 commitments to accelerate the establishment of protected areas for our coastal waters and in the Great Lakes, to help ensure the long-term ecological and economic health of Canada’s marine areas. This figure is up from 68 per cent in 1995.

Also today, WWF-Canada presented Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Herb Dhaliwal over 6,000 letters from supporters across the country urging permanent preservation of just one marine protected area: the Gully, 200 kilometres off Nova Scotia. Called the “grand canyon of the sea,” the Gully is home to thriving ocean life including thousand-year-old corals and the bottlenose whale. Despite being named a “pilot” marine protected area by the federal government three years ago, the Gully still has no management plan or permanent protection.

Furthermore, it is increasingly threatened by industrial development. On November 1, nine new leases in the vicinity of the Gully, valued at half a billion dollars, were awarded by the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board, a federal-provincial body that regulates oil and gas exploration and development off Nova Scotia.

Earlier this fall, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh came to Toronto to announce the Duke of Edinburgh Fund to Protect Canada’s Waters, which has already raised over $400,000. Prince Philp warned that many nations outside Canada are “watching to see what has been going on here. Anybody who knows about these programs knows that they are stalled, and I don’t think it’s doing Canada very much good in the eyes of the world.”

“This stalling is not doing much good in the eyes of Canadians either,” added Laughren. “With WWF’s help, Canada managed to protect over 1,000 new areas on land in the last decade, bringing the total of land areas protected to 7 per cent. WWF is now turning its sights to the water, where only 0.01 per cent is protected. Canadians have shown they can make great strides in conservation when political will is matched with public support. Canadians are showing they want marine protected areas. Now it is up to governments to do their part.”