Saguenay – St. Lawrence Marine Park | “Destructive” fishing in a marine protected area

Canada’s marine protected areas do not pass the test; none meets the minimum standards that the government has set for itself, concludes an evaluation, which finds that activities incompatible with their vocation are carried out there, particularly in Quebec.

Jean-Thomas Léveillé
Press

We trawl in part of the Saguenay – St. Lawrence Marine Park, yet supposed to protect “everything that lives there, from the seabed to the surface of the water,” claims its website.

A valid permit from Fisheries and Oceans Canada allows the exploitation of the Icelandic scallop bed of Île Rouge, which is located in the St.Lawrence Estuary, at the mouth of the Saguenay River.

“There was a resumption of fishing in area 16A1 in 2017, concentrated on the Ile Rouge deposit”, we can read in the stock assessment carried out by the federal ministry in 2020.

The total authorized catch of 10.9 tonnes was even “slightly exceeded” in 2018 and 2019, specifies the document, which recalls that this deposit “could not support an annual exploitation of about 10 tonnes from 1998 to 2002” .

Such an activity is incompatible with the vocation of a marine protected area, deplores Marie Cadieux, project manager in marine conservation at the Quebec section of the Society for Nature and Parks of Canada (SNAP).

In 2019, the federal government adopted minimum protection standards for new federal marine areas that specifically prohibit trawling, among other harmful activities.

SNAP learned of the existence of this fishing activity as part of its assessment of marine protected areas in the country, published Thursday, which concludes that Canada has “still a long way to go.”

“We need to improve the protection of our federally protected marine areas,” says Marie Cadieux.

Quantity versus quality

Canada’s marine protected areas, whose mission is to preserve biodiversity, cover 8.3% of the country’s marine territory – if we add other types of protection that have different conservation objectives, the proportion of marine territory protected climbs to 14%.

However, only 0.4% of the marine territory actually benefits from strong protection, concludes SNAP in its assessment, the first carried out using a guide drawn up by an international team of experts in the field.

What’s more, none of Canada’s 18 marine protected areas meet federal minimum standards for protection.

“Protecting marine environments is great, but that’s not all; they must be protected effectively, ”explains Marie Cadieux, who calls on Ottawa not to neglect quality in favor of quantity.

The vigor of marine ecosystems has a direct impact on life on land, recalls the geographer, emphasizing for example their nourishing role, the oxygen they release or the carbon dioxide they absorb.

The case of the Saguenay – Saint-Laurent marine park is a good illustration of the “easy gains” that can be made to increase the “quality of conservation measures” in marine protected areas, believes the director general of the Quebec section of SNAP, Alain Branchaud.

“We can buy back the license [de pêche] and stop trawling. There is no reason to justify such activities in the symbol of what is a marine protected area in Quebec, ”he explains.

To give oneself the means

SNAP’s conclusions hardly come as a surprise to Émilien Pelletier, professor emeritus at the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Quebec at Rimouski (ISMER).

Ottawa still deserves credit for having designated these protected areas in the right places, which is a difficult task requiring “many years of research and work,” says Professor Pelletier. “But then you have to take action, and that’s where the shoe pinches. You have to have the means and the political will, ”he adds.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada declined to interview Press, but recalled in an email that the minimum standards adopted in 2019 apply for marine protected areas created subsequently.

The existing marine protected areas will be “examined in the context of review cycles” to determine the compatibility of activities such as bottom trawling with their conservation objectives, said Kariane Charron, a spokesperson for the ministry. .

“With regard to oil and gas activities [dans des aires marines], the Government of Canada will work with industry and other organizations to obtain the voluntary waiver of rights conferred by oil and gas licenses, ”she added.