On September 14, Canada’s minister of fisheries and oceans endorsed a plan that will make the waters surrounding Race Rocks, a small nine-islet archipelago, the first official marine protected area in Canada. Commercial fishing and most sport fishing will be off-limits in the MPA, which will measure a little less than one square mile, or 2.6 sq. km, in area. Race Rocks is located on the southernmost end of the nation’s Pacific coast (MPA News 1:8).

Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) designated Race Rocks in 1998 as one of several “pilot MPAs”, part of a strategy to determine whether those areas should be formally designated as MPAs and how they could best be managed (MPA News 1:1).

Building an ambitious national MPA program from the ground up, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has established six “pilot MPAs” in the past year and has plans for more soon. With an adaptive approach that emphasizes scientific research and the testing of protection strategies, DFO seeks to “learn by doing”: through its pilots, it will determine whether the areas should be formally designated as MPAs and how they can best be managed, say officials.

DFO assumed responsibility for coordinating the nation’s marine protected area programs in 1997 with the launch of Canada’s Oceans Act, and it has moved quickly since then to set aside coastal and deepwater sites. Four pilot MPAs now exist on the West Coast (Race Rocks, Gabriola Passage, Endeavor Hot Vents, and Bowie Seamount) and two off the Maritimes on the East Coast (Basin Head and Sable Gully). Of these six, Basin Head is the newest, announced in June. DFO officials in Newfoundland, Quebec, and Canada’s Arctic are expected to announce pilot MPAs in their respective areas in the coming year or two. Draft management plans for the existing pilot MPAs could be ready by early next year.