Posted at 11:30 a.m.
Limit your carbon footprint
A large part of the carbon footprint of a trip to the beach is in the travel required to get there. A round-trip Montreal-Nice flight in economy class will produce 1.92 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per passenger and a Montreal–Îles-de-la-Madeleine flight, 0.32 tonnes of CO2 eq. A compact car traveling Montréal-Old Orchard, in both directions, will emit 0.17 tonnes of CO2 eq. (calculations made with the Carbone Boréal tool). Opting for nearby destinations and for the car rather than the plane, when possible, can greatly reduce the environmental impact of the trip.
leave no traces
The Leave No Trace philosophy, which is based on seven principles to limit its influence on the environment, does not only apply in the forest. For Julien Poisson, program director for southern Quebec at the Nature Conservancy of Canada, these principles must also apply to beaches. “It’s not just picking up the bag of waste or the tender bar paper, it’s also not trampling on the vegetation, not cutting branches or trees, not leaving any trace of our passage. It is as if we had never visited the natural environment. It also means not picking up shells, sand, plants and baby turtles (it’s been seen!), respecting the designated bathing areas and the access trails. Thinking outside the box can have a ripple effect. “Just a small one-day trail can become a very big long-lasting trail with erosion problems,” says Mr. Poisson.
Do not feed wild animals
This is a principle that applies not only to Mount Royal raccoons, but also to fish, ducks and gulls, even the most harassing ones. It is also forbidden to feed them in national parks and in certain municipalities in Quebec. Providing them with artificial food sources can change animal behavior and tastes and unbalance the ecosystem. We must also avoid approaching them, even for a photo.
Opt for eco-responsible sunscreens
Certain chemical compounds contained in sunscreens and moisturizers pose a threat not only to corals, but here too, to aquatic fauna and water quality. “It goes up the food chain [les chaînes alimentaires], so unfortunately, it is found in the tissues of animals, underlines Julien Poisson. In the ocean, it is diluted, but in a lake, with a crowded beach, it is raised in the water intakes. »
The US National Ocean Service lists 10 chemicals that are harmful to the environment, the best known being oxybenzone and octinoxate. The Association for Environmental Health of Quebec recommends using sunscreens that are free of them, favoring those that are mineral and that use “non-nano” zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, and reducing the amount of cream used while wearing sun protection clothing.
Browse smart
Cleaning your boat before setting it down on a new waterway helps prevent the introduction of invasive exotic species such as zebra mussels or Eurasian watermilfoil. If we use a motor boat, we move away from the shores. “It’s fun to slalom between two very narrow islands, but your boat wakeboarding is designed to make big waves, it erodes the coasts and we break the natural environments, says Julien Poisson. Turtle nesting sites, aquatic grass beds and snake nesting habitats are destroyed. He also implores boaters to avoid damaging aquatic grass beds, a “home” for fish, with their boat’s propeller or anchor. Better still, we choose boats without a motor.
Visit the beaches!
For Julien Poisson, human presence does not necessarily conflict with the preservation of nature. On the contrary. “When they have both feet in nature, people are much more inclined to want to respect it, to realize the good that nature does to them. They are more inclined to protect it and even become supporters of the conservation movement. »