Musquash Marine Protected Area should be expanded, says environmentalist

David Thompson was a central figure in the creation of the Musquash Estuary Marine Protected Area a decade ago and now he's pushing to have it expanded.

Thompson, a naturalist and the Conservation Council of New Brunswick's former Fundy Baykeeper, said he would like to see the protected area's boundaries moved to the west.

That would bridge a gap between its current border and a 35-hectare parcel of coastline recently purchased by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, at Western Head, at the entrance to Little Musquash Harbour.

Thompson says almost all the land in between Western Head and the Musquash protected area — about three kilometres in distance — is already controlled by groups like the Nature Conservancy or the provincial government.

"So that gives us a point to put the line to," said Thompson.

"There's a good case for extending it, really. Not much reason not to."

Thompson expects a favourable response from the federal government, pointing to recent comments from the former federal fisheries minister Hunter Tootoo.

In January, Tootoo reaffirmed his government's commitment to meeting an ambitious target of setting aside five per cent of Canada's oceans as marine protected areas by next year and 10 per cent by 2020.

Canada agreed to the commitments outlined in the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010 in Nagoya, but so far has only protected 1.3 per cent of its territorial waters.

"Now, I think, when we have the opportunity to capture that area around the mouth of the Musquash, where the water flows in and out, then we better go ahead and do it and make sure that the area is protected in [the] future," said Thompson.

"I think the experience with Musquash has been good, there hasn't been anything negative about it, and people support it, so that would seem natural to expand it down to the next cove."