Feds hit 'reset button' on marine protected areas in N.S., N.B.

After a two-year hiatus, the Trudeau government has restarted consultations to create more marine protected areas (MPAs) on the Scotian Shelf and Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is seeking feedback on three identified candidate MPAs up for designation and an additional 31 potential conservation sites in the bioregion.

It is circulating a draft conservation network design of existing and potential MPAs to a targeted audience of provincial and federal government departments, Mi'kmaw representatives and other stakeholders.

"We're kind of hitting the reset button on the whole process," said Derek Fenton, section head with DFO marine conservation.

The conservation network was developed in 2017 and included a broad-scale map of potential sites.

The same map is in the draft making the rounds in 2021 but with much more information. All 31 additional sites have detailed maps with their size in square kilometres, descriptions of why each site is special, key ecological features, how the area is being used and any current conservation measures in place there.

DFO sharing details

In 2018, DFO refused to release its version of the map to CBC News. This week it quickly supplied the draft in full upon request.

The additional sites include Georges Bank, Roseway Bank, Brier Island and Canso Ledges, among the many others.

Fenton said nothing is cast in stone.

"The areas there are really candidates for discussion," he said. "There's no plans at this time to conserve all of them at once or anything like that. They really do represent the kind of ideas that we want to engage the public on whether these would be good areas going forward."

Suspicion on Eastern Shore

Marine protected areas are a sensitive issue in some coastal communities in Nova Scotia where there is fear a designation will impact commercial fishing.

Two years ago, those fears temporarily sunk efforts to designate Eastern Shore Islands, a lengthy inshore area east of Halifax.

Many fishermen there simply refused to believe DFO assurances that the local lobster fishery would be allowed to continue if it was made an MPA. They held protests and put up "NO MPA" lawn signs signalling opposition in front of homes along the shore.

In August 2019, ahead of a federal election, then-Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson pressed pause on Eastern Shore Islands during a visit to the East Ship Harbour Legion.

"I guess if you want to put a label on it I would say effectively suspended," Wilkinson told the Eastern Shore Cooperator, a local newspaper.

Canada upping ocean conservation commitments

Now MPAs are back on the agenda as the Trudeau government has committed to conserving 25 per cent of Canada's oceans by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030.

The Liberal government has decreed that an area designated as an MPA will be closed to oil and gas exploration and development and bottom trawling.

MPAs are not automatically off limits to less intrusive forms of fishing like trap fisheries.

Other conservation measures that are not as strict as an MPA, like marine refuges, count toward the total area protected.

Reaching out to opponents — again

As part of the current engagement, DFO has reached out to the Eastern Shore Fishermen's Protective Association representing fishermen in the area. The association helped galvanize opposition to the proposed MPA in 2019.

President Peter Connors said their position has not changed.

"There has to be some kind of a method that protects the fishery over the long term," he said Wednesday. "That's always been our condition, and that's always been the stumbling point as to what kind of a mechanism or what kind of methods they could use to protect the fishery here."

Fenton said DFO scientists continue to research the area but agreement with the fishing industry does not seem imminent.

"We're hopeful that discussions on that will continue over the next few years," he said.

There are currently two marine protected areas in Nova Scotia: the Gully near Sable Island and St. Anns Bank off Cape Breton.

DFO is seriously considering three others. Two are so-called "areas of interest": the Fundian Channel off southern Nova Scotia — an area known as the Hell Hole to generations of fishermen — and Eastern Shore Islands. More recently, DFO proposed Eastern Canyons near the edge of the continental shelf as a marine refuge.

Nova Scotia's position: engage with DFO

The Nova Scotia government is taking a wait-and-see approach to the draft plan, which it read in June.

"There could be considerable or there could be minimal types of impacts on our fisheries," said Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Steve Craig.

"The importance of these marine protected areas to the federal government and to Nova Scotians is critical to be looked at and we're looking forward to being engaged along with other partners, industry looking at these with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans," Craig said.

Timeline for talk

DFO's "targeted engagement phase" has been extended from year's end to March 31, 2022.

After that revisions to the map will be made, and a second draft of the conservation network design will be developed.

The public engagement phase is planned for 2023.

DFO is planning on moving first on the three prospective MPAs by 2025. Whichever of the remaining 31 sites are selected would be moved forward for 2030.

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