Huge deep-water area off N.S. declared a marine refuge & More News Here

An area off Nova Scotia’s coast practically 4 occasions the scale of Cape Breton was declared a marine refuge by Canada on Wednesday — World Oceans Day.

Eastern Canyons Marine Refuge is a 44,000 sq. kilometre swath of ocean operating from the sting of the continental shelf close to Sable Island to Canada’s unique financial zone greater than 300 kilometres offshore.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) says Eastern Canyons is residence to uncommon bottlenose whales and cold-water corals .

“One of the largest known [coral] aggregates in Atlantic Canada. You can think of it as akin to an old-growth forest in the sea,” says Kristian Curran, DFO regional supervisor of sustainable harvests for the Maritimes Region.

All bottom-contact fisheries — together with trawls, traps, and longlines — will likely be prohibited contained in the marine refuge, aside from one fishing zone for smaller vessels that use longlines. It covers about 0.2 per cent of the general refuge area. All vessels working in it is going to be required to have federal at-sea observers on board. 

Creation of the marine refuge will shut down fishing with a median landed worth of $700,000 per yr within the area, says Curran.

“As a number 700,000 of course is quite large. But when we put it as a percentage of the total landings in landed value from the broader management area [eastern Scotian Shelf] it’s quite small on average, maybe five per cent of the total rather comes from Eastern Canyons,’ he said.

Environmentalists welcomed one of the largest fisheries closures in eastern Canada.

Fred Whoriskey, a scientist at the Ocean Frontier Institute in Halifax, says Eastern Canyons is a critical habitat for many deep-water species. 

“These deep-water areas are most likely extraordinarily essential for the operate of the ocean ecosystems and we do not perceive them very properly. So to have one which’s protected, that is intact [and] can function a pure laboratory is a very, very highly effective software and one thing that is going to be superb for the ecology of Canada,” Whoriskey said.

The area is adjacent to the Gully Marine Protected Area, the first of its kind in Atlantic Canada. Eastern Canyons was proposed for conservation under the Fisheries Act in 2018.

It was criticized by some in Nova Scotia’s lucrative halibut fishery which will be blocked from most of the area.

“I do not assume an excessive amount of of it,” says Andy Henneberry, of ALS Fisheries in Sambro, N.S. “We’re closing a productive area for the fishing fleet, the halibut fishing fleet. The hook and line does little or no injury to corals.”

Henneberry says the impact of the closure goes beyond the Eastern Canyons Marine Refuge — where catches represent five to eight per cent of the fishery on Easern Scotian Shelf.

“When you shut a spot, the hassle strikes elsewhere after which you’ve battle with different fisheries and it simply makes it a hardship throughout for the trade. When they shut these areas, they do not have a look at the entire impression, what it does to the trade. They simply have a look at and say, ‘Look at what now we have finished for the surroundings. Look what we finished for the ecosystem,” Henneberry said.

The Conservative’s federal fisheries critic Rick Perkins blasted the designation as “synthetic advantage signalling.”

“Fish swim and currents transfer. This authorities doesn’t perceive that there aren’t any borders within the ocean that fish comply with. In conferences with DFO they had been unable to point out me any science that reveals fishing on this area was dangerous to the corals. Their solely reference was to science usually. It is tough to see how a halibut line has had any impression.” 

In making the announcement, DFO Minister Joyce Murray said the move will help preserve Atlantic fisheries.

“Our authorities is dedicated to working along with Indigenous and native communities and with all ranges of presidency to preserve shared waters and defend the livelihoods of coastal communities for future generations,” Murray said in a news release.

Susanna Fuller, vice-president of operations and projects at Oceans North, says the establishment of Eastern Canyons “really begins to get to the tip level of a few of the conservation we have wanted.”

Despite Henneberry’s objections, she says industry was extensively consulted.

“We must have some insurance coverage insurance policies for the long run and defending areas for fish to proceed to breed. And I feel fishermen ought to be ok with this one. They had been on the desk the entire time, not all the time agreeing on every part, however actually it was fairly a good means of going backwards and forwards on boundaries, numerous give and take. And I typically, when the method was completed, individuals felt pretty good about it,” Fuller said.

The Atlantic Groundfish Council, representing larger fish companies, was one of the industry groups consulted.

Spokesperson Kris Vascotto said the council was disappointed there isn’t recognition of the halibut fishery because it’s possible fishing gear used near the refuge could drift inside.

Eastern Canyons is part of the Government of Canada’s commitment to conserve 25 per cent of Canada’s oceans by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030.

DFO is working on finalizing a plan to create more marine conservation sites on the Scotian Shelf and in the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

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