Research trip off north coast of Vancouver Island heightens group’s concern about fishing methods

By Judith Lavoie, Times ColonistJuly 15, 2009Comments (1)

A research trip that offered a close look at an ocean floor teeming with unusual life forms off the north coast of Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte Islands shows an urgent need for the federal government to speed up protection plans, says an environmental group.

“We found so much life, it is unbelievable,” said Jennifer Lash, executive director of Living Oceans Society, who, last month, piloted a one-person submersible to depths of up to 500 metres as part of an expedition to find deep-sea coral. “It showed how much we don’t know about the ecosystem.”

The Vancouver Island marine environmental group has lobbied for three years for protection of deep sea corals and other species threatened by bottom trawling and other fishing methods, such as long-line fishing.

Data from the expedition underscore the urgency of protecting the ocean ecosystem and identify some of the areas most at risk, Lash said.

“We really worry that protection won’t come in time. One of the things that worries me the most is resistance from the commercial fishing industry,” she said. “Once we destroy these places, it could take a heck of a long time to heal.”

One of the best methods of protection is already in the works, but progress is slow, Lash said.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is planning to designate 88,000 square kilometres of water, stretching from Campbell River to the Alaska border, as the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area.

It’s one of five ocean management areas in Canada — and the only one on the Pacific Coast.

“What we are talking about is places you can or can’t fish and where you can use certain gear, where can you put a wind farm, and how is shipping going to happen on this coast,” Lash said.

“Right now, there’s already ocean zoning, but none of it is co-ordinated. No one talks to each other.”

The government is also coming up with strategies to protect forests of deep sea corals and fragile glass sponge reefs under Hecate Strait.

The coral and sponge strategy will cover waters from the Alaskan border to the southern tip of Vancouver Island, including Georgia Basin, said Mel Kotyk, DFO oceans program manager.

The draft strategy should be ready for consultation by fall, he said, and could go to Ottawa for approval by the end of March.

The Pacific management area has the most ambitious and complicated plan, involving all levels of government, First Nations, industry and environmental groups.

“What we are trying to do is develop a long-term vision of what this area should look like,” Kotyk said.

That means looking at everything from aquaculture and wind farms to cruise ships, commercial fishing and First Nations fisheries, and then coming up with a plan to ensure sustainable use and conservation of ecological diversity.

“We are trying to bring everyone to the table, come up with a vision and then resolve the conflicts,” Kotyk said, adding the goal is to have a plan in place by 2012. “It’s an incredibly ambitious schedule, but I think we can do it.”

Lash is also hoping DFO can pull it together, but progress has been so slow, and said she sometimes questions the government’s commitment.

“The focus of DFO is on what we can take out of the ocean rather than the health of the ecosystem,” she said.

jlavoie@tc.canwest.com

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